SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT DIRK GKEINEDER - Mass Cases

testified that Greineder could not be excluded as a
contributor to the mixture of DNA found on each of those
three items, specifying the statistical likelihood of a
random match probability for the same combination of
alleles. Charts detailing those inculpatory test results
were distributed to the jurors during trial and made
available to them during deliberations. n. 12/13-60.
Having permitted Dr. Cotton to testify over
objection about the test results obtained by Wendy Magee,
the trial judge prohibited defense counsel from
introducing electropherograms displaying the raw,
unfiltered data underlying those same results. E.
13/111. In objecting to the admission of such materials,
the prosecutor declared:
This is a complex set of information, run
through a complex program. And there’s a lot
of variables, including the filters that you
talk of, to take out stutter, to take out
artifacts. And the person who did this and
made those decisions to sun it in a certain
way needs to get up there and verify that....
I Id. at 7 (emphasis added). Yet the person who made those
decisions for Cellmark (Wendy Magee) did not “yet up
there” and testify at trial.
B. Summary of Applicable Law.
An expert witness is permitted to rely upon facts or
data not in evidence in formulating an opinion, but
prohibited from describing those underlying facts or data
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