Commonwealth v. Gliniewicz

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• boots worn by defendant with tread similar to that of print at crime scene and with blood on them
• pieces of boots, showing minute traces of blood linking defendant to murder, destroyed during serological testing
• prejudice found where Commonwealth’s violation of pretrial discovery agreement resulting in the destruction of physical evidence was “intentional or at least condoned by the Commonwealth”
• “defendants received no notice of the impending tests, and thus were not able to have their own expert present to observe and potentially to refute the subjective aspects of the testing”
• reversed because destruction of evidence during scientific testing made defense testing, impossible; at new trial government was to be prohibited from making use of the tests
• proper for officer to seize as evidence boots worn at time of arrest once officer noticed bloodstains and that boot’s tread appeared similar to tread at scene of crime

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).