Lindsey v. People
| Decision Date | 06 March 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93SC167,93SC167 |
| Citation | 892 P.2d 281 |
| Parties | Gregory LINDSEY, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
David F. Vela, Colorado State Public Defender, and Martin Gerra, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, for petitioner.
Gale A. Norton, Atty. Gen., Stephen K. ErkenBrack, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Timothy M. Tymkovich, Sol. Gen., and Deborah Isenberg Pratt, Asst. Atty. Gen., Crim. Enforcement Section, Denver, for respondent.
We granted certiorari in People v. Lindsey, 868 P.2d 1085 (Colo.App.1993), to consider whether, in view of this court's decision in Fishback v. People, 851 P.2d 884 (Colo.1993), the court of appeals erred in holding that the techniques employed to calculate the statistical frequency of a declared match in a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) typing case related to the weight of the evidence and not to its admissibility. Petitioner advances three reasons for reversal: (1) that at the time the DNA evidence was offered there was significant scientific disagreement concerning the validity of the statistical techniques employed; (2) that the district court heard expert testimony regarding the disagreement; and finally (3) that the disagreement has not been resolved but has become more pronounced. We hold that the evidence was properly admitted and affirm the court of appeals.
The defendant, Gregory Lindsey (Lindsey), was convicted of first degree sexual assault, second degree burglary, and four habitual criminal counts. At trial, the court allowed the People to introduce evidence that the defendant's DNA matched DNA samples taken from seminal fluid obtained by medical examination of the victim following the assault. The court also allowed expert testimony regarding the probability that the defendant's DNA profile would match a DNA profile obtained from a randomly selected African American individual. Lindsey argues that the trial court improperly admitted the DNA evidence because the procedure used to compute the statistical probability of a random DNA profile match was not generally accepted by the scientific community when the trial court ruled that the evidence was admissible.
On February 16, 1988, a man wearing a mask broke into a woman's Colorado Springs home and sexually assaulted her. She did not look at her attacker who identified himself as a "black man". She told police she believed the man who attacked her lived next door because the two men living next door were tall and powerfully built, similar to her attacker. Lindsey, in fact, lived next door to the woman, but was not a suspect until after he was arrested in connection with sexual assault on a second woman.
The second woman was sexually assaulted in January 1988, at which time police recovered evidence from the crime scene including seminal fluid obtained from a medical examination of the woman, and from stains on her bedclothes. In May 1988, an intruder again broke into the second woman's home, and attempted to assault her, but fled when her neighbor telephoned. Lindsey was arrested after the May assault, at which time police obtained samples of his blood. In June 1988, police furnished Lindsey's blood samples together with evidence obtained at both crime scenes to Cellmark Diagnostic Corporation (Cellmark) for DNA analysis. Cellmark's report declared a match between the DNA extracted from Lindsey's blood sample and the DNA recovered from both crime scenes.
Lindsey was originally charged in a single information with sexual assault on both victims. After the court granted Lindsey's motion to sever the charges, the January 1988 assault case was tried first. 1 At the trial of the February 1988 assault case the People's experts testified regarding the probability that Lindsey's DNA profile would match the profile of a randomly selected African American individual. The estimates ranged from one in 340 billion down to one in 21 million using more conservative frequency calculations.
Prior to admitting the DNA evidence, the trial court conducted proceedings to determine its admissibility under Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923).
The first Frye hearing was held on September 16, 1988, before the charges against Lindsey were severed. The People presented two expert witnesses who testified regarding the general acceptability of the theories and techniques used to conduct DNA typing. 2 Lindsey's counsel advised the court that no funds were available to retain experts to refute the People's evidence. The court continued the Frye hearing at Lindsey's request. On January 10, 1989, after the charges were severed, the parties reconvened to decide the admissibility of the DNA evidence while jury selection in the January 1988 assault case was underway (January 1989 hearing). At this hearing the People recalled Drs. Housman and Garner and presented testimony from an additional expert who testified regarding the general acceptance of the methods used to calculate random match probabilities. 3 Again, Lindsey presented no contrary evidence. Following the hearing the trial court ruled that the DNA typing evidence completed by Cellmark was admissible under the Frye test. 4
Upon conclusion of the January 1988 assault case, and prior to commencing the February 1988 assault case, Lindsey requested a new Frye hearing, and advised the court the defense was now ready to challenge the admissibility of the DNA evidence. 5 In response, the People requested the court to rule that the prior hearings were dispositive with respect to admissibility of DNA evidence. The People referred the court to several recent Colorado cases where trial courts had admitted DNA evidence, together with decisions from Maryland, Florida and New York where courts had allowed DNA evidence. 6 The court denied Lindsey's motion for a new Frye hearing and ruled that the Frye test had been met with respect to both the scientific techniques of analysis and the statistical methods of calculating random match probabilities. 7 Lindsey objected, arguing Cellmark's DNA typing procedures, particularly the genetic probes relied upon to isolate polymorphic DNA segments, had not been accepted by the scientific community. In response, the court granted Lindsey permission to file a motion in limine to address his concerns regarding Cellmark's DNA testing protocols.
Lindsey filed such a motion, and requested that the court suppress the DNA evidence. At the same time he requested reconsideration of the denial of a Frye hearing. The court heard argument on the motion in limine in February 1990. Although Lindsey originally objected to Cellmark's genetic probes, at the hearing his argument focused on the statistical procedures Cellmark used to calculate random match probabilities. 8 Lindsey claimed Cellmark's database was in disequilibrium causing the random match calculations to be unreliable. Because the court had already ruled that the DNA evidence was admissible under the Frye test, the court ruled on Lindsey's motion in limine by analyzing Lindsey's objections under CRE 702 and 403. The court summarized the testimony:
The Defendant's witnesses unanimously agreed that no reliable statistical prediction of probability of a match between two unrelated individuals could be established upon the evidence or the system utilized by Cellmark. Witnesses for the prosecution have recognized that further study and refining of the techniques should continue, but testify that the technique was reliable at this point to establish the identity of persons to a reasonable degree of scientific probability by utilization in comparing DNA patterns. Applying Rule 702 of the Colorado Rules of Evidence, the Court finds that the witnesses produced by both the People and the Defendant are qualified experts and, therefore, qualified to testify.... The existence of significant disagreement among experts to the validity of the opinions expressed is not a reason to exclude this testimony from the finder of fact. 9
The trial court found that the controversy regarding Cellmark's statistical analysis went to the weight rather than the admissibility of the evidence. Lindsey argues the DNA evidence should have been excluded because the methodology used to determine the statistical significance of a DNA match was not accepted by the relevant scientific community at the time of trial, and therefore was not admissible.
In People v. Lindsey, 868 P.2d 1085 (Colo.App.1993), the court of appeals affirmed, applying a three step analysis adopted in People v. Castro, 144 Misc.2d 956, 545 N.Y.S.2d 985 (1989). 10 The court first explained Lindsey's challenge to forensic application of the statistical portion of the evidence required review under the Frye test. Lindsey, 868 P.2d at 1089. Whether Cellmark properly implemented generally accepted techniques required review under a relevancy standard. Id. at 1090. Based on these parameters that court held that the DNA evidence was admissible under both the Frye test and CRE 702. Id. at 1091. The court found that the in limine hearing served the same purpose as Prong III of the Castro test; that is, to decide whether the testing laboratory in this case applied accepted scientific techniques in its forensic DNA analysis. Id.
In Fishback, we explained the procedures used to extract and isolate DNA fragments in order to construct a DNA profile using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Lindsey does not question the scientific theories underlying RFLP analysis. 11 Lindsey nevertheless argues that the evidence should have been excluded based on scientific disagreement over the statistical analysis used to provide a context for the DNA profile match.
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