Description
The course begins with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. (113 S. Ct. 2786, 1993). This decision threw out the Frye Rule that had governed the admission of scientific evidence in federal courts since 1923. While the Daubert rule now applies in all federal courts, states are free to either stay with the Frye Rule, adopt the new Daubert Standard or adopt some combination of the two. Students will consider the implications of these evidentiary changes in a number of areas of legal controversy. Topics will be drawn from the following subjects: tort litigation involving Bendectin, DNA testing in criminal cases, traditional forensic evidence involving handwriting identification, finger print analysis, surveys as scientific evidence in consumer confusion cases, and psychological syndrome evidence cases - post traumatic stress disorder, battered woman syndrome, and rape trauma syndrome. Other topics may be drawn from constitutional law cases including death penalty issues, jury size cases, school segregation by race and gender (including the controversy over single-sex education, and the ending of school busing mandates by the federal courts). The goal of this course is to increase the proficiency of lawyers to use scientific evidence on behalf of clients and be able to defend against such evidence when presented by the opposing counsel.
