COLUMBIA, HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND CRIMINAL DNA: DEFENSE

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The Maryland Court of Appeals recent decision (August 21st, 2013) in the criminal case of WHACK, JR. v. STATE (No. 86, Sept. Term 2012), reveals the ongoing mis-use and misinterpretation of DNA evidence by prosecutors:

"Accordingly, counsel have a responsibility to take extra care in describing DNA evidence, particularly when it comes to statistical probabilities. The prosecutor certainly has “liberal freedom of speech” during closing argument, see Spain, 386 Md. at 152, but this commentary must be grounded in the evidence or reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence. Minor misstatements from counsel are inevitable in a trial, but this was not a minor misstatement. The prosecutor wrongly asserted that Petitioner’s DNA was definitely on the armrest when the evidence demonstrated only that it might be present. The prosecutor also suggested that the statistical analysis backed up this assertion, urging jurors to draw an equivalency between the mathematical certainty that White’s DNA was in the truck with the probability that Petitioner’s DNA was located there. These remarks were highly improper because the statements misrepresented complicated scientific evidence that was a key part of the prosecution’s case.”