Reconsidering the Admissibility of Expert Forensic Evidence in South African Criminal Proceedings

Expert forensic evidence can be of great assistance in criminal proceedings. However, the question that must be answered is whether and to what extent there is science in any forensic science discipline. In the last twenty years there have been growing concerns about the admissibility and reliability of expert evidence in criminal trials. Many common law jurisdictions have raised concerns about traditional admissibility standards and their inability to filter out unreliable expert forensic evidence. As a result of these concerns, a number of these jurisdictions have adopted and now apply reliability criteria for the admissibility of this evidence. In South Africa, expert forensic evidence is admissible if it is relevant. The reliability of the evidence is determined at the end of the trial when the evidence is evaluated. This article examines this position and argues that the current position does not require an assessment of the reliability of expert forensic evidence at the admissibility stage, allowing expert forensic evidence of doubtful reliability to be admitted. It is argued that the admissibility of this evidence should be reconsidered by introducing a reliability standard as a precondition for admissibility.