The Mystique of Science: The Influence of Experts on the Administration of Criminal Justice

• Author: Brian H. Greenspan
• Pages: 139-148

The

Mystique

of

Science:

The

Influence

of

Experts

on the

Administration

of

Criminal Justice

BRIAN

H.

GREENSPAN

Among

the

recent cases

I

have been involved with

that

illustrate

an

important

issue

in

criminal law,

the one

that

is of

great current significant

is the

use,

abuse,

and

influence

of

experts

in the

criminal trial process.

To my

great dis-

may,

however,

the

most obvious case

in

this category

was the

matter

of Dr.

Chikmaglur

Mohan-a

case

in

which

I had

been unsuccessful.

I

immediately

looked

for

another issue,

but the

best examples

all

seemed

to end in

defeat-resoundingly public

and

reported defeats.

In one of the few

selfless

gestures

of my

career, I've therefore retreated

to

Mohan. This decision,

I

assure you,

was not

dictated

by

modesty

or

humility

but was

simply what

was

required. Nevertheless,

I

present

to you a

profile

of a

defeat.

After

all, only Earl

Stanley Gardner

could

conceivably ascribe

to a

defence lawyer

the

nonsense

that

"I

never take

a

case unless

I'm

convinced

my

client

was

incapable

of

com-

mitting

the

crime charged."

The

Mohan case

is

instructive

on a

variety

of

levels,

and it

raises

an

important practical cautionary note with respect

to the

abdication

of the

fact-

finding

process

to a

reliance

on

opinion. Mohan confronts head-on

the

emer-

gence

of

unscientific science.

On a

personal, professional level, this case

was

only

one of the

three

conviction appeals

of the

more than twelve hundred appeals

I

have argued

in

the

Court

of

Appeal

for

Ontario

in

which

I

acted

as

both

trial

and

appellate

139

1995