Supreme Court Finds Prosecutors Violated Drug Defendant’s Rights by Switching Expert Witnesses

The Supreme Court ruled on June 21 that prosecutors infringed an Arizona drug defendant’s constitutional right to confront witnesses against him by using the testimony of a substitute expert witness who didn’t actually conduct the drug tests that another expert performed. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the Court’s new opinion in Smith v. Arizona. Although all nine justices agreed with the Court’s judgment in the case, not all of the justices agreed with the reasoning in the opinion. The case concerns Jason Smith who entered not guilty pleas to five drug offenses in Yuma County, Arizona. The state sent the drug evidence to a state-run crime laboratory, but the expert witness who testified against him at trial was different from the expert who performed the tests on the drugs. He challenged the substitution of the witness but was still convicted....