Police Dog Had A History Of Sniffing Mistakes.

While a victim sat in his car waiting for a traffic light to change, a young Hispanic man got out of a white Volkswagen and murdered him. A defendant was found guilty of first degree murder after a police dog named Reilly alerted to a scent showing the defendant’s scent was present on the front passenger seat of the VW.  The defense was that another young Hispanic man shot the victim. The matter ended up in federal court on a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The Ninth Circuit reversed the murder conviction, stating: “The prosecution did not disclose to the defense that Reilly had a history of making mistaken scent identifications, even though it had stipulated to Reilly’s mistaken identifications in a different trial several months earlier.”  Aguilar v. Jeanne S. Woodford, Director of California Department of Corrections  (Ninth Cir.; July 29, 2013) (Case No. 09-55575).