STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. GEORGE CALLEIA, __ N.J. Super. __ (App. Div. 2010), A-6218-07, June 22, 2010:

Although in 1993 the United States Supreme Court abandoned the general acceptability standard in Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923) in favor of a more relaxed scientific reliability standard, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S. Ct. 2786, 125 L. Ed. 2d 469 (1993), codified in Fed. R. Evid. 702, the test in New Jersey continues to be whether the scientific community generally accepts the reliability of the proffered evidence. State v. Chun, 194 N.J. 54, 91, cert. denied, __ U.S. __, 129 S. Ct. 158, 172 L. Ed. 2d 41 (2008); Harvey, supra, 151 N.J. at 170.

General acceptability of a particular scientific methodology can be established in three ways:

(1) by expert testimony as to the general acceptance, among those in the profession, of the premises on which the proffered expert witness based his or her analysis;
(2) by authoritative scientific and legal writings indicating that the scientific community accepts the premises underlying the proffered testimony; and
(3) by judicial opinions that indicate the expert’s premises have gained general acceptance.

[Harvey, supra, 151 N.J. at 170 (quoting Kelly, supra, 97 N.J. at 210).]

The proponent of the evidence bears the burden to “clearly establish” each of these methods. Harvey, supra, 151 N.J. at 170.

General acceptance does not require a unanimous belief in the absolute infallibility of the technology or methodology at issue. Chun, supra, 194 N.J. at 91-92; In Re Commitment of R.S., 173 N.J. 134, 136 (2002). To meet this burden of general acceptability, the proponent of the evidence must prove that the technology is a “non-experimental, demonstrable technique[] that the relevant scientific community widely, but perhaps not unanimously, accepts as reliable.” Harvey, supra, 151 N.J. at 171. “It is reliability that must be assured.” R.S., supra, 173 N.J. at 136; see Kelly, supra, 97 N.J. at 210 (holding that “[t]he technique or mode of analysis used by the expert must have a sufficient scientific basis to produce uniform and reasonably reliable results”).

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