Freeze Frame: Inadmissibility Of Autopsy Leads To Admission Of More Autopsy Photos In D.C. Case

I have been sent an interesting post by the author of the The Felony Calendars Blog, a blog about criminal trials in D.C.. The post is

about an incident in which the analyst who completed an autopsy was not available to testify at trial.  Defense counsel refused to stipulate to the admissibility of the analyst’s report, so the judge allowed the prosecutor to qualify the deputy medical examiner as an expert.  Then the medical examiner testified about the meaning of a series of autopsy photos, relying on the absent analyst’s inadmissible report. 

The post deals with several popular issues on this blog:  the Confrontation Clause, Federal Rule of Evidence 703 (which D.C. courts have adopted in case law), and the peculiar problems created by multi-defendant trial.  Interested readers should check out the post, Rogers: On Autopsy Photos and the Perils of Being a Co-Defendant.

-CM