People v. Debraux

In People v. Debraux, Ind. No. 1653/2015, 50 Misc. 3d 247, 21 N.Y.S.3d 535 (Sup. Ct. New York Co. Sept. 24, 2015)(Kahn, J.), the court found that the use of allele drop-in and drop-out rates as well as other stochastic effects in calculating probability ratios was an entirely valid methodology that is generally accepted in the relevant, credible scientific community. That court declined to follow People v. Collins for a number of reasons. One of them also involved what appears to be the "believability" of defense witness opinions in that case. In Collins, 15 NYS3d at 575, the court indicated that it was swayed by the testimony of the "impressive defense witnesses." In Debraux, the court noted that three of those witnesses all worked for one laboratory in Texas, and one other witness ran a defense consulting firm. The Debraux ruling was also critical of Collins in its interpretation of and application of the Frye standard itself. The court recognized that the Collins court reached its "conclusion principally on the basis of its agreement of the merits with the arguments of the defense experts criticizing the manner in which stochastic effects at each locus are assessed by the FST, and therefore rejected the FST technique overall, (See People v. Collins, 15 NYS3d at 577-582)."