Seems like this would be obvious, but apparently not in Contra Costa County. An expert was allowed to testify that various pills were controlled substances when that opinion was based solely on a comparison of the way the pills looked to photographs of controlled substances on a website. COA shut that down. The Court ruled that the website was inadmissible hearsay, and per the new beautiful case on attempts to bootstrap hearsay through expert testimony (P v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal. 4th 665), the evidence was not made admissible just because an expert relied on it in reaching her opinion. There is some good language from out of state cases on the reliability of the internet, but the Court declined to go on and evaluate the reliability of the website or to address broader foundational/hearsay principles related to webpage postings. Still though, another great opinion on bootstrapping hearsay through an expert.
The post You can’t prove a drug is a drug by relying on a picture of a pill on a website appeared first on juicejusticeandcorgis.