Lawmakers to weigh fears of drug suspects dodging punishment
Gov. Tim Kaine said Wednesday morning he was calling an Aug. 19 special session to ensure compliance with last month’s court decision, which mandates prosecutions make lab technicians available for cross-examination about their reports.
Under Virginia law, defendants must subpoena analysts if they wish to dispute lab results. The ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, which shifts responsibility to prosecutors, has sparked broad concern the change will overwhelm analysts with calls to testify, as well as delay and possibly scuttle trials. Defense lawyers already are invoking the decision in Virginia courtrooms, and some DUI cases have already been tossed because of it.
Kaine said he would authorize funds to help forensic analysts testify as needed, but that immediate changes in law were needed to manage existing cases.
The governor’s decision follows calls from the Republican nominee for attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, and commonwealth’s attorneys to seek a legislative fix. A special session is “the only certain way we can get to a point of equilibrium in terms of the demand on our forensic science folks,” Cuccinelli told The Examiner this week.
Republican candidates framed Kaine’s decision as a victory for the GOP ticket. Bob McDonnell, the gubernatorial nominee, released a statement lauding Cuccinelli for “wisely [recognizing] the need to address this issue immediately.”
The campaign of Steve Shannon, Democratic nominee for attorney general, said earlier this month that Cuccinelli’s request was a public relations stunt and an attempt to “cover his weak record on drunk-driving laws.”
Six Republican prosecutors wrote Shannon to urge his support for a special session, arguing that “a legislative solution is the best and surest fix to ensure that Virginia’s statute is both constitutional and effective.”
“We got handed a thorny, complicated problem,” Shannon said in a statement Wednesday. “After several weeks of talking to the governor, his staff and the commonwealth’s attorneys, there are some things we can do legislatively to respond in the short term and pave the way for the administrative fixes that will keep these cases from being dismissed in court.”
