Beyond the Bar
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 21 |
BEYOND THE BAR
Should Evidence Forming the Basis of an Expert's Opinion Be Admitted Under Evidence Rule 703?
I TAK, I HI!!![1]
By Warren Moise
It's been an exciting year for those on the Supreme Court. Raucous crowds, allegations of accepting gratuities, claims of unethical conduct, etc. Oh. You thought I was writing about the United States Supreme Court?
No, I'm talking about the Ukrainian Supreme Court.
In case you missed it, Stanislav Kravchenko has recently become the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The prior Chief Justice, Vsevolod Kniaziev, has been removed from office for allegedly receiving a $2.7 million dollar bribe. All of this happened in the midst of drone attacks, Russian artillery raining down upon the capitol, and blown-out bridges in the war- torn nation.
It just goes to show that when you think things can't get much worse ....
Anyhow, I was working on this column about a South Carolina case that was decided, in part, on admissibility of expert testimony. I wondered how things were done in Ukraine with expert testimony at trial so please permit my digression into Ukrainian jurisprudence.
I came upon an article by a Ukrainian law professor and a Ukrainian prosecutor, namely M. Shcherbakovskiy and D. Kurylenko. These two writers have published an article entitled "Expert Witness[es] in Ukrainian Legal Proceedings (2019) in Theory and Practice of Forensic Science and Criminalistics," 19(1), 142-157 (2019) [hereinafter "Theory and Practice"].
Apparently, Ukrainian law regarding expert witness testimony is not well developed. Well, "not well-developed" is an understatement. The concept of an "expert witness is not covered by the procedural legislation of Ukraine, although it has become widespread in research papers of processional scientists." Theory and Practice at 151.
And I thought things were unclear over here. Now, I am happy to say that as for the Palmetto State, we have gotten clarification on the subject. Here we go.
State v. Jenkins
As Justice John Few noted recently in State v. Jenkins, Case No., 2019-001280 (S.C. Sup. Ct., filed April 6, 2022):
We have yet to be [entirely] clear . . . as to how a trial court should determine to admit evidence reasonably relied on by an expert when the evidence is otherwise inadmissible.
Id.
In Jenkins, the supreme court took a great leap...
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