Substantive Due Process Does Not Require Rebuttable Presumption of Drug Contamination by St. Paul Crime Lab

State v. Hill, Minn.S.Ct., 12/9/2015.  The state charged Mr. Hill with aiding and abetting first degree sale of ten or more grams of methamphetamine.  Mr. Hill sold two bags of meth to a fellow who turned out to be a confidential informant.  The St. Paul crime lab weighed the two bags - the net weight was in excess of the requisite ten grams.  That lab then tested a small piece from each bag after which the remaining, untested contents of each bag were sealed up in a new evidence bag and subsequently sent over to the BCA for further testing. The BCA weighed the contents of each bag - still in excess of the requisite ten grams - and also tested the contents of each bag - still meth.

Mr. Hill objected to the introduction of the results of the BCA testing. He said that the BCA results that confirmed that the bags contained meth were unreliable because the contents of the bags might have been contaminated while they were in the custody of the St. Paul lab, investigation of which had uncovered deficiencies in its quality assurance controls.  Mr. Hill wanted the court to adopt a rebuttable presumption of contamination.  Chief Justice Gildea rejects that invitation for a unanimous six person court, newly installed Justice Hudson not participating.

Mr. Hill said that adoption of this rebuttable presumption was necessary to vindicate his right to substantive due process. Substantive due process protects an individual from "arbitrary, wrongful government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them.  In re Lineham, 594 N.W.2d 867 (Minn. 1999).  The actions of the St. Paul crime lab must have either "shocked the conscience" or "interfered with rights implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" to violate substantive due process. It's a pretty high bar:  acts done with "deliberate and unjustifiable injurious intent", or the use of false evidence .  Given that both the St. Paul lab and the BCA determined that the stuff in the bags was meth, Mr. Hill couldn't really meet that standard.The St. Paul crime lab may have been inept in and ignorant about testing suspected controlled substances  but its heart was if not in the right place at least not proven to have been in the wrong place.  And, of course, had the court adopted a rebuttable presumption for the testing done by the crime lab it would have overturned hundreds and hundreds of previous convictions.

Mr. Hill's fall back position was that the court should adopt this rebuttable presumption under its supervisory powers to ensure the fair administration of justice.  For just about the same reasons the court also declines to do this as well.