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Crime Laboratory v. Blenden6/24/1999
lcohol content. The supplemental request is sufficiently similar to the request read to the trial court that it should have resulted in the production of all the names of the suppliers of known standards used in calibrating the Chromatograph machine.
. During the trial the State asserted that all of the names of the various suppliers of known standards was contained in the Procedures, which had been produced to Brandon. However the trial court found that the "Crime Laboratory personnel wholly failed to give meaningful discovery to the Defendant relevant to the standards or solutions requested in discovery and buried the calibration information it did provide in discovery provided in such a manner as to render the same virtually useless by the Defendant in this case..." The Procedures state that in calibrating the machine "a calibration curve is generated from the results of aqueous standards." The Procedures also list various "reagents, standards, and controls" and the suppliers from which they can be obtained. However, the Procedures do not state which aqueous standards are to be used in calibrating the machine or that known standards from three different suppliers are compared for accuracy. Therefore, the trial court did not err in finding that the manner in which the names of suppliers were disclosed was meaningless and resulted in a discovery violation.
. Third, the trial court found that the State failed to disclose who had calibrated the Chromatograph until after a mistrial had been declared in the first trial. The chemical analysis of a person's breath, blood, or urine is only valid where it can be determined (1) that the proper procedures were followed; (2) the operator of the machine was properly certified to perform the test; and (3) the accuracy of the machine was properly certified. McIlwain v. State, 700 So. 2d 586, 590 (Miss. 1997) (citing Johnston v. State, 567 So. 2d 237, 238 (Miss. 1990)). The person calibrating the machine need not be called to testify and be subjected to cross-examination unless the certification is not presented or there is an issue raised as to the authenticity of the certification. Id. at 591. Here, no certificates were produced regarding either the qualifications of the person who calibrated the machine or as to the calibration of the machine. In the absence of these certifications Brandon was entitled to cross-examine the person who calibrated the machine prior to his blood being analyzed. Therefore, the trial court was correct in finding that the failure to identify Hales as the person who calibrated the machine resulted in a violation of discovery.
. Fourth, the trial court found that further discovery violations occurred by the redaction of material information from Crime Lab documents submitted to Brandon in response to requests for production. In the discovery context the purpose for redacting a document is to remove that information which a party is not entitled to discover such as confidential or privileged information. See Lyon v. Dunne, 580 N.Y.S.2d 803, 804 (App. Div. 1992). Howell testified that, according to his regular practice, he redacted the sequence file prior to production in order to remove any confidential information or any information which he felt was irrelevant to this particular case. The information redacted included Howell's and Hales's initials. The sequence file was redacted in such a manner that the alterations were not readily apparent. Even if the information regarding blood samples other than this defendants may have been undiscoverable, the State does not claim a privilege protecting the initials of Howell and Hales from discovery. Howell claims that he had no reason for deleting the initials from the sequence
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