Court Opinion

ID: 9823255
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 09:51:04.24836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:39:16.861179
License: Public Domain

TORRUELLA and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges,
dissenting from denial of en bane rehearing.
LIPEZ, Circuit Judge,
joined by TORRUELLA and THOMPSON, Circuit Judges, Statement Re Denial of En Banc Review.
I am disappointed that a majority of the active judges have rejected the opportunity presented by this case to reconsider en banc our aberrant and misguided law on the admission of opinion testimony by police officers. In my concurrence four years ago in United States v. Valdivia, I pointed out that our approach has “created in some of our precedents an unwarranted police exception from the requirements applicable to expert testimony.” 680 F.3d 33, 61 (1st Cir.2012). That approach not only seriously misconstrues Federal Rules of Evidence 701 and 702, but it is also “at odds with [the law of] virtually every other circuit.” United States v. Moon, 802 F.3d 135, 147 n. 9 (1st Cir.2015) (citing Valdivia, 680 F.3d at 56 n. 16 (collecting cases)). It is now well past the time when we should have confronted our flawed law and eliminated the ongoing unfairness to defendants.