The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that “linkage analysis” evidence — expert testimony that crimes are so similar that they form a pattern pointing to a single offender — lacks sufficient scientific reliability and is inadmissible at trial.
Although prosecutors in the murder trial of Steven Fortin will be allowed to present testimony that aspects of the crime were similar to those of an assault on a female police officer in Maine, for which he was convicted, the Court barred the witness from testifying that, in his opinion, the evidence shows Fortin committed both crimes.
