 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Reed v. Maryland9/6/1978
>
At another point the record reflects:
"THE COURT: I gather from what you have said you have found it helpful in your work to have the spectrogram?
"THE WITNESS: Yes.
"THE COURT: That it does reduce to a visual picture one's voice?
"THE WITNESS: That is right.
"THE COURT: And not just one component, but in several?
"THE WITNESS: Yes."
With this background it is easy to see why Dr. Baker's testimony, the only evidence adduced on behalf of the defense on the issue of admissibility, did not undermine the State's evidence relative to the reliability of voice identification by spectrographic analysis which had been heard by Judge McAuliffe. He characterized Dr. Baker's testimony in this manner:
"I find that Dr. Baker has an excellent background generally in speech science, but voice comparisons by spectrographic means or otherwise is clearly a peripheral field of interest to him. He testified that the state of the art is not sufficiently advanced to permit him to say that voice identification by spectrogram is reliable. He is particularly concerned about what he believes to be unknown effects of noise and the consequent degradation of the signals and the effects of stress on the voice. We have noted earlier that Dr. Tosi addressed himself to these issues and felt that while study was needed, he had introduced some noise into his experiments and that the introduction of noise or stress or psychological factors should only serve to increase errors in false eliminations and would not increase the percentage of error of false identification. Dr. Baker testified that the Tosi studies were scientifically legitimate. But Dr. Baker would desire more studies.
"We think that Dr. Baker is one of the people that Judge Tim Murphy spoke of in the Brown case when he spoke of the scientific desire of certitude. We agree scientists like things to be precise and exact and mathematically reliable and without variation, and that is a fine desire, but the court and the law has never held that to be the standard for the admissibility of scientific evidence. We must remember the scientific bent which affects the judgment of some of these people and keep in mind our independent responsibility to make a judgment of reliability and general acceptance based on our
criteria. If we did not decide cases except where things were absolutely and mathematically certain, we would not ever decide cases. Even in a criminal case proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not require mathematical certainty.
"We also note about Dr. Baker that he thinks that listening alone is not a valid way of making a voice identification. But we know that courts have long and universally accepted this testimony, that a witness who has heard two conversations has been permitted to testify that they are by the same person. Perhaps the earliest case and the one generally cited in Maryland is Rowan v. State, 175 Md. 547, and our leading case is McGuire v. State, 200 Md. 601. There is Lenoir v. State, 197 Md. at 495, and there is Dyson v. State, 238 Md. 398. These are all cases standing for the proposition that a witness may testify after having heard someone speak, and, being familiar with the defendant's voice or having heard the defendant speak, express an opinion that they are one and the same or they are not the same. It is very significant that the courts universally have permitted lay witnesses to express an opinion on voice identifications from merely hearing. It pretty well points out the difference between the philosophy of the sci
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 Maryland DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|