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ALTHOUGH THE FAILURE TO CONDUCT A FRYE HEARING TO DETERMINE THE ADMISSIBILITY OF THE ANALYSIS OF DNA EVIDENCE USING THE FORENSIC STATISTICAL TOOL WAS ERROR, THE MAJORITY CONCLUDED IT WAS HARMLESS ERROR BECAUSE OF VIDEO EVIDENCE CIRCUMSTANTIALLY CONNECTING DEFENDANT TO THE GUN FOUND BY THE POLICE; THREE-JUDGE DISSENT ON WHETHER THE ADMISSION OF THE DNA EVIDENVE CONNECTING DEFENDANT TO THE GUN WAS HARMLESS (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, over a three-judge dissenting opinion, held the acknowledged DNA-evidence error was harmless. All the judges agreed that a Frye hearing should have been held to determine the admissibility of the DNA analysis using the Forensic Statistical Tool. The issue was whether the defendant or others at the scene of the assault (a deli store) possessed a gun which was found on a display shelf by a police officer. DNA evidence connected the gun to the defendant. The majority concluded the video footage which showed defendant placing an item on the shelf where the gun was found rendered the DNA-evidence error harmless:​

It was an abuse of discretion for the trial court to admit the results of DNA analysis conducted using the Forensic Statistical Tool without first holding a Frye hearing … . Here, however, this error was harmless. The evidence of defendant’s guilt was overwhelming. Video footage from a security camera inside the store was entered into evidence at trial, including footage from one camera trained on a display shelf which captured a group of men holding defendant against the shelf. The other men then scatter, leaving the video frame, at which point defendant places an item on the shelf directly in front of him before he too runs out of the frame. After approximately two minutes and fifteen seconds, during which no one approaches the shelf or the area where defendant placed the item, a police officer looks at the space on the shelf where the item was placed, walks over, and removes a gun. Rather than “mere physical proximity,” the video shows that only defendant could have placed the item—the gun recovered minutes later—on the shelf, not “any of the several others in the same area” (dissenting op at 8). Therefore, there is no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted defendant had it not been for this error … . People v Easley, 2022 NY Slip Op 02770 CtApp 4-26-22

Practice Point: All the judges at the Court of Appeals agreed the admissibility of DNA evidence gathered using the Forensic Statistical Tool should have been determined in a Frye hearing. But the judges disagreed on whether the error in admitting the DNA evidence was harmless. The DNA evidence apparently connected the defendant to a gun found by the police. The majority concluded video evidence which demonstrated defendant placed an object in the area where the gun was found rendered the DNA error harmless. Three judges disagreed in an extensive opinion.

 

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