People v. Shreck

The prosecution in this case initiated this original proceeding pursuant to C.A.R. 21, seeking relief from a trial court order granting the defendants motion to bar DNA evidence. The trial court held that under Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C. Cir. 1923), the multiplex technique employed by the commercial testing kits used by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation ("CBI") in 1999 was not yet generally accepted at that time by the relevant scientific community. Thus, the trial court ruled that the DNA evidence at issue in this case, which was derived from those kits, was not admissible against the defendant. We issued a rule to show cause why the trial courts order should not be vacated, and the defendant responded.