Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Comments

• John Robins says:

  Imagine that! Don’t worry about inconveniencing the Commonwealth when they’re talking about putting someone in jail for a few years–it’s only a defendant. Thou shalt not sacrifice someone on the altar of prosecutoiral expediency.

  Posted on 11/30/09 at 1:18 pm
• Scott Pickus says:

  I must question the accuracy of Gail D. Jaspen, the chief deputy director. I recently tried a case (October) where two chemists from the Roanoke office testified and were very definitely cross examined. (Commonwealth v. Doss – Pittsylvania Circuit Court).

  If she so cavalierly treats the fact that those two chemists did testify on both direct and cross examination, and Ms. Jaspen hasn’t included that case in her statistics, I am left to seriously question the credibility of the remainder of her statements and statistics and wonder how much her “facts” have been massaged to fit a particular characteristic that the decision of Melendez-Diaz has grossly taxed the resources of the Commonwealth.

  I guess justice and equal protection under the laws, as well as the right of confrontation, are important only if the exercise of those rights don’t cost the state a lot of money.

  If the courts and the General Assembly had protected the right of confrontation in the first place, there wouldn’t have even been a “problem” that needed to be solved.

  Posted on 11/30/09 at 11:06 pm

POST A COMMENT