The stories of failings of experts are legion, but some are so ordinary, and thus pervasive, that they rock the foundation of criminal law. Such is the story of Dee Wallace, via Paul Kennedy.
It would be far too much to ask that the big time areas of expertise, ranging from autopsies to DNA, are handled by their respective professionals with the utmost integrity. What of the little, taken-for-granted areas of expertise, like breathalyzers and drug testing? What if the numbers were all a big scam, a big joke, and they were just making them up right and left?
No judge in his right mind would start from scratch on examining the true competencies of experts, straight down the line, or the actual validity of tests themselves, or the machines that magically convict on the government’s behalf. That would take forever, and we all know that it’s accurate and valid. The judge would be furious for our wasting his time, and wouldn’t let us do it anyway. We would be foolish to even suggest such lunacy.
Except for the fact that there is a Dee Wallace in the world. And she isn’t the only one of her kind.
An isolated incident? 4,000 isolated incidents? Part of a culture that takes such ordinary failings for granted, or worse still, thinks they are doing society a favor by making it easier to put bad guys in jail? And yet, the experts will take the stand on Monday and testify with self-righteous certainty that we have no choice but to trust them. And judges, and juries, will do exactly that.
Dee Wallace, the disgraced breath test machine technical supervisor, who filed fake maintenance records on the Intoxilyzers under her watch, was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday. It is estimated that some 4,000 DWI convictions in Harris and Galveston counties could be affected by Ms. Wallace’s deceit.We take for granted some degree of baseline integrity in the legal system. Dee Wallace takes it away. Nobody watches the watchers, the few who are entrusted to be responsible for the honest working of the backroom systems upon which everything else relies. Who would believe that this could happen. It’s so basic.
While there may be some solace in the fact that Ms. Wallace is reaping her just rewards, those who were victimized by her lies must go through the process of filing writs and obtaining court orders to recover the money they spent on fines, court costs, probation fees and surcharges.
It would be far too much to ask that the big time areas of expertise, ranging from autopsies to DNA, are handled by their respective professionals with the utmost integrity. What of the little, taken-for-granted areas of expertise, like breathalyzers and drug testing? What if the numbers were all a big scam, a big joke, and they were just making them up right and left?
No judge in his right mind would start from scratch on examining the true competencies of experts, straight down the line, or the actual validity of tests themselves, or the machines that magically convict on the government’s behalf. That would take forever, and we all know that it’s accurate and valid. The judge would be furious for our wasting his time, and wouldn’t let us do it anyway. We would be foolish to even suggest such lunacy.
Except for the fact that there is a Dee Wallace in the world. And she isn’t the only one of her kind.
An isolated incident? 4,000 isolated incidents? Part of a culture that takes such ordinary failings for granted, or worse still, thinks they are doing society a favor by making it easier to put bad guys in jail? And yet, the experts will take the stand on Monday and testify with self-righteous certainty that we have no choice but to trust them. And judges, and juries, will do exactly that.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
But the PROCESS, Scott, the process.
Except that the process doesn’t matter either, when we don’t want it to.
On Friday the 4th department issued a decision in Evans v. State, dealing with the issue of whether the Department of Corrections could impose upon an inmate a period of post release supervision that was mandated by statute but not ordered by the Court as part of the sentence. The context was that an inmate to whom this had happened sued for false imprisonment, etc.
Held: the Department of Corrections is not without jurisdiction to impose post release supervision administratively if the sentencing judge doesn’t.
Put another way, the government (executive branch) can impose punishment upon an individual without a court ordering it.
Put another way, an individual can be deprived of liberty without due process of law, or indeed without any process at all.
How do you like that one? Are we in serious trouble yet?
In 1996, the Ohio legislature abolished “good time” and replaced it with “bad time.” Instead of releasing you before your stated prison sentence was completed, the parole board could keep you in prison beyond the time for which you were sentenced if you hadn’t behaved yourself. The Ohio Supreme Court said that was an unconstitutional sentence imposed by the executive rather than the judicial branch.
But the same sentencing reform also created “post-release control.” For some felons it’s mandatory and must be ordered by the judge. But for others it’s optional – at the discretion of the parole board. The Ohio Supreme Court said that was just fine because the judge ordered it. The fact that the judge didn’t was deemed irrelevant to the court’s declaration that the judge did.
Correction: the name of that case is Collins v. S of NY, not Evans. Out of Erie County.
Sorry.
I haven’t got the slightest clue what you’re talking about John and how it relates to this post.
Well, the idea is that one frequently hears that the “process” is sufficient protection from rogue elements like Dee Wallace. People may lack integrity sometimes, it is thought, but the process never lacks integrity, and that is our safeguard.
I didn’t mean to be cryptic. I thought you and others would understand the point without my being too explicit, but maybe I wasn’t clear enough at all.
Now I see your point. The failure here isn’t Dee Wallace, but the process. It’s taken for granted by all, and that’s why its ripe for abuse. From Wallace to the FBI crime lab, it was taken for granted and abused. The process is to accept it all on faith. Does a Dee Wallace make all the judges in Harris County think twice about ever accepting the word of the expert, or that the cool black boxes really do what they say they do? Or do they just wait for the next magic box that makes everything better and trustworthy again?
There is a lot of error detection and correction in the process at the fact finding stage but evidently there is no or insufficient oversight of support systems. It almost seems like people are willfully blind. Do they shoot bearers of bad tiding?
Only one year? What the hell is going on in Texas? Police & prosecutors enjoy immunity loopholes. Judges allowing rights to be ignored due to time constraints and buldging court docketts. The US Supreme Court is pumping out rules allowing & suggesting the behavior to continue. Then someone wonders why the jails / prisons are overcrowded.
Now, we learn that a pee-on in a backroom somehow possessed the power to work alone with no checks and balances in place. Some will ask how come her supervisor isn’t her celly. Who else was in on it. Or just sum it up as just another Texas F— story.
Harris County is the worst of the worst because everyone is allowed to freely comitt dirty deeds for decades on end. If & when caught, only to receive a tap on the wrist or be allowed to say “that was a long time ago”, “I don’t remember” & slip away in a state of retirement.