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30 T. Marshall L. Rev. 429 (2004-2005)
Crime Labs: Scape Goats for a Culture of Indifference

handle is hein.journals/thurlr30 and id is 435 raw text is: CRIME LABS: SCAPE GOATS FOR A CULTURE OF INDIFFERENCE BY NORMAN SILVERMAN* The thing about forensic crime labs is that their paper can be objectively graded. This fact makes these laboratories ideal scape goats for the ills of the criminal justice system as a whole. This is not to say that they are not worthy of criticism. Indeed, the more technology advances, the more the errors of the past become clear. But in our haste to lay blame for wrongful convictions we must not lose sight of one key fact: apathy flows downhill. The last decade of Texas criminal jurisprudence is characterized by decisions from the Court of Criminal Appeals and laws passed by the legislature which serve to lessen the state's burden of proof and erode the presumption of innocence. The end result, the close enough for government work, attitude of apathy that seems to plague crime labs across the state can be traced back to jurisprudence and law making that makes the current crime lab crises not only possible, but entirely foreseeable. This paper will examine in detail, one class of offense as a window into the bigger problem of legislative and judicial apathy. Drug offenses are the most commonly charged felony criminal offense where scientific evidence is used by the state to meet its burden. It is not the purpose of the paper to provide an exhaustive list of apathy-ridden-issues of forensic science but rather to advance the thesis that the headwaters ofjudicial apathy are found in Austin; in the legislature and in the Court of Criminal Appeals. It is from these headwaters that the lacksadiscal attitude permeating our state's crime labs flow. MAKING THE PROSECUTORS' LIFE EASIER Once upon a time, prosecutors were held to high standards by the courts of this state. They were presumed to know the law and held accountable when their inability or ignorance of the law forced appellate acquittals. Until 1991, appellate review of the legal sufficiency of circumstantial evidence cases required that the prosecution's proof exclude every outstand- ing reasonable hypothesis but for the guilt of the accused. It was reasoned that if a reasonable hypothesis inconsistent with guilt remained after the evidence * Norman Silverman is a criminal defense lawyer based in Houston and practicing throughout the South.

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