seattlewag
Junior Member
When did this case occur? Because "several decades ago" just about predates the use of DNA in courts. It is possible that they were testing for blood type instead which was far more common (unfortunately) back then. In any case if this is that old than honestly all bets are off. It sounds like the defense attorney's story was that they took a cutting from the panties and tried to dispose of the rest and he somehow acquired it. That is something that really should never happen today but who knows back then? Even today sometimes cuttings are done at the lab and sometimes they are done by the ID officer. If the officer does the cuttings then they just send that piece of fabric to the lab and they keep the garment in evidence. I can absolutely picture a small town or otherwise inexperienced officer making a cutting and throwing the rest out in the dumpster. Or did this case get reopened later after a closed investigation or a reversal? After a conviction evidence is often destroyed or even released to the owner... and mix ups do happen.
It is also entirely possible that the defense attorney bluffed and said he had the panties when in fact he didn't. If all of this smoke and mirrors was simply used as leverage on the prosecutor to make a better plea offer, than you've got a case of a defense attorney who probably violated the rules of professional responsibility... but not necessarily much more than that.
A magnifying glass sounds about right. He wouldn't be looking for microscopic evidence he'd be looking for stains to see whether there is anything there to process and test. I can see the expert saying he can't do anything because there is nothing left on the panties to test. I do not see how the expert could examine the panties, minus the cutting, and conclude anything about what evidence could be gathered from the cutting the State has. That seems to be what you are suggesting happened but I'm thinking something is getting lost in translation.
It is really impossible to come up with a plausible scenario based on so few facts. If you want to tell us more about the case that would really help.
This is actually a 1975 1st Degree rape case. It occurred in the south. The court records and medical records for it were both supposedly lost years later in a natural disaster.
The defense attorney/public defender of record claims that after the crime lab cut out the portion of the defendant's underwear which had blood residue on it, they tested it and then threw out the swath of fabric they had tested. That crucial evidence therefore was lost, but the underwear themselves still remained. The defense attorney claims she then got a "special court order" to take what was left of the defendant's underwear to a potential expert witness in NYC, a renowned forensic blood science expert. The expert had not been retained yet by the defense. She says she made an appointment, met him, pulled out the underwear, handed them to him, he examined them with a magnifying glass, then gave her the answer she was looking for: The remaining evidence would be inadequate for testing. She claims to have returned home and used the threat of flying this expert in to discredit the evidence, in order to get the case pled all the way down to a minor sex offense, for which the defendant ended up serving 2 months in the county jail (time served).
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