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Pollanen, has introduced guidelines to enhance accountability since Smith's fol- lies, the association's recommendations include additional checks to ensure pro- cedures are followed. The CLA stopped short of formally recommending autop- sies be visually recorded after patholo- gists testified at the inquiry they'd object. "There has to be some method to ensure all samples are retained, recorded, and accessible," she says. "It seems that when Smith was doing them he ended up be- ing able to bring a hair back to his own house," she adds, aghast. A thorough and accessible system would ensure counsel could provide their own experts with meaningful in- formation. Says Greene: "In order to get a second opinion you really need to re- view the first autopsy. You need proper preservation, proper photographs, tissue samples, fluids, clear documentation of the route to the conclusion." She says the CLA is also formulating a position for changes to reciprocal- disclosure requirements that compel defence counsel to provide the Crown with information about the experts it intends to call. "There's a real problem with that, because an accused has certain constitutional protections in his or her trial, and reciprocal disclosure invades those protections," says Greene. Dur- ing the inquiry, lawyer Marlys Edwardh testified the defence often enlists experts that, depending on the turn of events at trial, may never be called, so "to require anything else before the Crown closes its case, I think raises very profound and significant constitutional issues." The CLA is also calling for a joint educational program in forensic pathol- ogy available to both the defence and Crown, and funded by the attorney gen- eral. "There's no forensic pathology class in law school, no science class," Greene points out. "So in order to be educated you have to do continuing legal educa- tion, and these programs cost a lot." Not all of the CLA's recommendations are precise. "One big issue we're address- ing in our materials is, how do you deal with evidence that goes into the com- munity where there is clear controversy," queries Greene. "If the experts can't even agree, how is a jury going to agree?" to decouple what happened there with the wider issue of wrongful convictions." — FRANK ADDARIO, SACK GOLDBLATT MITCHELL LLP Addario adds that the association will ask, yet again, for more legal aid fund- ing. "The chronic underfunding of the Ontario legal aid plan, which in turn enables the majority of criminal defen- dants to litigate homicide cases, has to be addressed as an issue of adjudicative importance." He also says that, ideally, autopsies "It's impossible dependent on the integrity and the vi- sual accuracy, or recording accuracy, of a pathologist who might do a hundred autopsies between the time he did mine and the time he's testifying about mine in court," he says. "If autopsies are recorded on videotape, then I can take that DVD and send it to any forensic pathologist in North America or Europe and say, 'Did what he saw and what he did support it?' I can show it to a jury." Goudge is to deliver a final report to DD CL HR3rdC-07 Prmo ad 4/3/08 4:21 PM Page 1 should be recorded. "We're completely Need to improve your company gifts? Dye & Durham's Corporate Promotional Products specialists are dedicated to meeting the promotional needs of your company and can develop an exciting & unique program to brand your corporate image. Select customized products from key chains to high quality lead crystal products. And if you need rubber chickens we can source them too! yourONE source supplier for Office & Furniture Products Corporate Promotional Products Printing & Graphic Services Law Office Essentials Corporate Supplies Search & Registration Services dyedurham.ca Phone: 1-888-393-3874 www. C ANADIAN C PREFERRED SUPPLIER U Ontario's attorney general by the end of September, and Addario, whether he gets his wish for recorded autopsies or not, is optimistic. "Justice Goudge is smart, sober, and sensible," he says, con- fident the bigger picture at stake won't be overlooked. "It's impossible to de- couple what happened there with the wider issue of wrongful convictions. We can't keep combing our hair and look- ing in the mirror and being surprised that we've got a cowlick. We know. We should be dedicating ourselves to elimi- nating that." E OFFICE & FURNITURE PRODUCTS Fax: 1-800-263-2772 mag.com M AY 2008 57 a D Y I n E 9 p N d & 9 C n D R m a 1 H a A n M S a 8 W e ' r e y C i o a