Defense Still Not Given the DNA Report

The Duke Lacrosse case has become a complete joke and it is hard to imagine it becoming even more ridiculous, but several weeks after learning the Nifong and Dr. Meehan of DNA Security agreed to withold potentially exculpatory evidence from the defense…the defense attorneys have still not seen the DNA report.

Defense lawyers in the Duke lacrosse case still have not received all the DNA test material in the case, according to a motion filed today.

A private laboratory, DNA Security of Burlington, has provided only some of the underlying data in the case, said the motion, which comes a month after the N.C. State Bar charged Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong with withholding DNA evidence favorable to the defense.

[…]

In October, a judge ordered Nifong to turn over all the underlying laboratory documents. Defense lawyers examined about 2,000 pages of documents, including “electropherograms,” which map DNA data as a series of peaks.

The lawyers discovered the laboratory had found DNA from at least four unidentified men in samples from the accuser’s body and clothing. The DNA did not match that of any of the lacrosse players–Bolding for Amanda Marcotte.

DNA Security director Brian Meehan admitted that he and Nifong had agreed not to report these results, which must be given to the defense under state law.

Note to Self: Never, ever go to North Carolina. Their notions of justice and legal procedure there are extremely screwed up.

FILED UNDER: Law and the Courts, US Politics, , ,
Steve Verdon
About Steve Verdon
Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research. He joined the staff at OTB in November 2004.

Comments

  1. North Carolina is great – just stay away from Durham.

  2. Gollum says:

    The answer here should be obvious: the DNA was Nifong’s.

    Which would explain many more of the mysteries about this case, actually, now that I think about it.