Liberty and Scientific Evidence in the Courtroom: Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the New Role of Scientific Evidence in the Criminal Courts

This critical essay examines the effects of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and its progeny on the criminal justice system at both the federal and state levels. While Daubert addressed the admissibility of scientific evidence in a civil action, the role of scientific evidence is most crucial in the criminal courts, where the testimony of an ‘expert’ in some or another scientific field frequently is the differen...