GILDEA, Chief Justice.
This case presents the question of whether we should adopt a rebuttable presumption of contamination for controlled substances that the St. Paul Police Crime Lab ("Crime Lab") handled and that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension ("BCA") later tested. The State charged appellant Richard Ellis Hill with aiding and abetting first-degree sale of a mixture of a controlled substance of ten grams or more, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 155.021, subd. 1(1) (2014), in connection with the sale of methamphetamine. Hill waived his right to a jury and submitted his case to the court. During the court trial, Hill objected to the admission of the BCA results that confirmed that the substance was methamphetamine. Hill argued the BCA test results were unreliable because the contents of the bags might have been contaminated while the bags were in the custody of the Crime Lab, which was investigated for deficiencies in its quality-assurance controls. Applying a chain-of-custody analysis, the district court rejected Hill's contamination argument. Hill was subsequently convicted of the charged offense. The court of appeals affirmed, State v. Hill, No. A13-1803, 2014 WL 6608809, at *5 (Minn.App. Nov. 24, 2014), and we granted review.
On appeal, Hill argues that we should adopt a rebuttable presumption of contamination for controlled substances handled by the Crime Lab based on either the right to substantive due process or our inherent judicial authority. Because such a presumption is not necessary to vindicate a defendant's right to substantive due process or to ensure the fair administration of
This case arises from a controlled buy the Dakota County Drug Task Force ("Task Force") conducted through the use of a confidential informant. Hill was arrested after the transaction, and following that arrest, the Task Force retrieved two bags of suspected methamphetamine that had been sold to the confidential informant. The Task Force marked these two bags for identification as Items 9A and 9B.
The Task Force transported each seized item in its own sealed evidence bag back to the Task Force's office. There, a Task Force evidence technician subjected a portion of the contents of each bag of suspected methamphetamine to a preliminary narcotics identification kit ("NIK") test. The contents of each bag tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine. The remainder of the substances that were not NIK-tested were transferred to a new bag that was then sealed, heat sealed, initialed, and placed back into the Task Force evidence bag along with the bags that had originally held the substances. The evidence technician then brought the evidence bag to the secure property room.
Later that same day, Items 9A and 9B were retrieved and transferred to the Crime Lab for corroborative testing. The criminalist who performed the testing determined that collectively, Items 9A and 9B had a net weight of 12.13 grams. The criminalist then tested the substances by removing a "small piece" from each and placing the small subsample into a vial that was then run through the Crime Lab's gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. The criminalist sealed the untested substance remaining from each item into a new evidence bag, and the bags were returned to the Task Force property room.
The record reflects that the Task Force subsequently retrieved Items 9A and 9B from the Task Force property room in response to the county attorney's request for further testing. The Task Force transported the items to the BCA, an institution "accredited"
Following the prescribed BCA testing procedure, the BCA criminalist obtained gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer test results that confirmed the presence of methamphetamine in both Items 9A and 9B. BCA testing further produced a negative result for the presence of "other controlled substances, such as heroin or cocaine or other common street drugs[.]" The BCA criminalist obtained a net weight of 7.207 grams for Item 9A and a net weight of 4.818 grams for Item 9B. Collectively, the net weight of Items 9A and 9B, "[c]ontaining methamphetamine," was 12.025 grams.
The State charged Hill with various felony drug offenses. Hill waived his right to a jury trial and submitted his case to the court. The State did not offer the tests from the Crime Lab but relied on the BCA test results. Over Hill's foundational reliability objections, the district court admitted the BCA's test results. The district court first applied a chain-of-custody analysis to the Crime Lab's handling of the controlled substances that were not subject to testing at the Crime Lab. Concluding that the untested substances were not likely contaminated while at the Crime Lab, the court applied the second prong of the Frye-Mack test to the BCA's testing procedure
On appeal, Hill argued the district court erroneously applied the chain-of-custody standard in addition to the second prong of the Frye-Mack test in admitting the BCA test results of the controlled substances. The court of appeals affirmed Hill's conviction. Hill, 2014 WL 6608809, at *5. The court held that "the district court correctly concluded that both the second prong of Frye-Mack and the chain-of-custody standard apply," and that the district court properly applied the chain-of-custody standard. Id. at *2. We granted Hill's petition for review.
On appeal to our court, Hill argues in his brief that because the evidence was processed through the Crime Lab, the evidence was not reliable and should not have
We turn first to Hill's argument that a rebuttable presumption of contamination for controlled substances handled by the Crime Lab is necessary to vindicate his right to substantive due process.
The United States and Minnesota Constitutions each "guarantee a criminal defendant the right to due process." State v. Beecroft, 813 N.W.2d 814, 836 (Minn. 2012) (plurality opinion); accord U.S. Const.amend. XIV, § 1; Minn. Const. art. I, § 7; see also State v. Krause, 817 N.W.2d 136, 144 (Minn.2012) (noting that the protections of due process provided under the Minnesota Constitution are "identical" to those guaranteed under the United States Constitution (quoting Sartori v. Harnischfeger Corp., 432 N.W.2d 448, 453 (Minn.1988))). It is, indeed, axiomatic that every criminal defendant has a "right to be treated with fundamental fairness. . . ." State v. Richards, 495 N.W.2d 187, 191 (Minn.1992); see Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 113, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977) ("The standard, after all, is that of fairness as required by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."). Like other courts, however, we are reluctant "to expand
We have interpreted the substantive component of the right to due process as protecting an individual from "certain arbitrary, wrongful government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them."
In the context of executive action, which is the type of action at issue here, substantive due process "prevents the government from engaging in conduct that `shocks the conscience,' Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 172, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), or interferes with rights `implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,' Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325-26, 58 S.Ct. 149, 82 L.Ed. 288 (1937)." United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987). Our precedent further establishes that "[o]nly the most extreme instances of governmental misconduct" can satisfy the "exacting" shocks-the-conscience standard, with these acts often evincing deliberate and unjustifiable injurious intent. Netland, 762 N.W.2d at 210 (quoting Mumm v. Mornson, 708 N.W.2d 475, 487-88, 490 (Minn. 2006)); see also Lewis, 523 U.S. at 846, 118 S.Ct. 1708 ("[O]nly the most egregious official conduct can be said to be `arbitrary in the constitutional sense.'") (quoting Collins, 503 U.S. at 126, 129, 112 S.Ct. 1061 (other citations omitted)).
Consistent with this precedent, we must first identify "the precise nature of the constitutional right asserted by [Hill] and the government conduct allegedly depriving [him] of that right." Netland, 762 N.W.2d at 208 (citing Frank v. Maryland, 359 U.S. 360, 363, 79 S.Ct. 804, 3 L.Ed.2d 877 (1959)). Hill contends the State "violated fundamental principles of due process when it established a crime laboratory that operated without policies, procedures, checks or controls and processed . . . evidence through that laboratory." In other words, Hill argues that the State's actions "shock[] the conscience," Rochin, 342 U.S. at 172, 72 S.Ct. 205. Hill also argues that the substandard operations of the Crime Lab created a substantial likelihood of contamination that is akin to the use of unnecessarily suggestive eyewitness identification procedures that create a "substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification," Biggers, 409 U.S. at 198-200, 93 S.Ct. 375.
To address these alleged violations of substantive due process, Hill asks us to adopt a rebuttable presumption that all evidence handled by the Crime Lab is contaminated. To overcome such a presumption, the State would be required to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that contamination had not occurred. Hill contends that support for such a presumption can be found in Ex Parte Coty, 418 S.W.3d 597 (Tex.Crim.App.2014), and Commonwealth v. Scott, 467 Mass. 336, 5 N.E.3d 530 (2014). We disagree.
In both Coty and Scott, recurring insidious and intentional misconduct of a particular state actor gave rise to the need to presume unreliability. The issue in those cases, in other words, was not substandard laboratory operations.
For example, in Coty the court adopted its burden-shifting presumption in direct response to the intentional misconduct of a specific laboratory technician who committed at least two instances of "dry labbing," an illicit practice in which a technician uses evidence tested in one case to falsely support a finding in another case. 418 S.W.3d
Id. at 605 (emphasis added). If the defendant satisfies this initial burden, he has proven "the errors could have resulted in false evidence being used in [his] case" and the burden shifts to the State to offer evidence demonstrating that the technician committed no such intentional misconduct in the defendant's case. Id. The Coty court explained that the above-described factors and process "properly limit the likelihood that a defendant will be convicted based on false evidence without unfairly setting aside convictions obtained by the State." Id. at 606.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court in Scott adopted a presumption of misconduct in cases handled by a specific crime lab technician who had committed various forms of egregious misconduct on numerous occasions, including dry labbing, turning negative results into positive results, and intentionally contaminating evidence. 5 N.E.3d at 535-36. Of concern to the Scott court in fashioning its presumption of misconduct for defendants seeking to vacate a guilty plea was the fact that the technician was unable to recall the cases in which she had engaged in intentional misconduct and those in which she had not. Id. at 544. Given the magnified culpability of the technician's conduct, the likelihood or even certainty of inaccurate test results, and the nearly impossible task facing defendants of establishing that the technician committed misconduct in their particular case, the Scott court concluded that defendants should receive the benefit of a presumption of misconduct. Id. at 544-45.
The circumstances of Hill's case are not comparable to the circumstances in Coty and Scott. The district court found no evidence of bad faith, malicious intent, or intentional misconduct on behalf of the Crime Lab as a whole or the individuals who handled the substances in the Crime Lab. To the contrary, the district court found that "the evidence presented indicates proper measures were taken during the handling of the evidence to avoid contamination of the . . . substances" that were not subjected to testing. And the court said that the "process followed" in the Crime Lab "does not suggest contamination occurred in this case or even was a likely possibility." Furthermore, the court found that the handling procedure, being "remarkably similar" to that used at the accredited BCA laboratory, was calculated to "ensure a contaminant free environment."
Our review of the record persuades us that unlike cases involving a substantive due process violation, here there is neither evidence of palpable harmful intent nor blatantly egregious behavior that meets the shocks-the-conscience standard. Moreover, the Crime Lab's procedure for handling the untested controlled substances
Hill contends that even if we conclude that constitutional principles do not require the rebuttable presumption he proposes, we should nevertheless adopt such a presumption pursuant to our supervisory powers to ensure the fair administration of justice. It is true that "we have the inherent judicial authority to regulate and supervise the rules that govern the admission of evidence in the lower courts." State v. Obeta, 796 N.W.2d 282, 287 (Minn. 2011) (citing State v. McCoy, 682 N.W.2d 153, 160 (Minn.2004)). We have relied on this "supervisory power" to decide "important evidentiary issues with statewide impact." Id.; State v. Scales, 518 N.W.2d 587, 592 (Minn.1994); State v. Lefthand, 488 N.W.2d 799, 801-02 (Minn.1992). But we have steadfastly held that these powers are invoked only in "exceptional circumstances." Roman Nose v. State, 845 N.W.2d 193, 201 (Minn.2014) (quoting Beecroft, 813 N.W.2d at 846). We see no occasion to invoke those powers here.
Unlike Scales and Lefthand, the issue at hand does not present statewide implications. Instead, it is limited to a single testing laboratory. Furthermore, in both Scales and Lefthand, we acted in response to the State's refusal to heed admonitions with respect to matters we had identified as necessary for the vindication of a criminal defendant's rights. Scales, 518 N.W.2d at 592; Lefthand, 488 N.W.2d at 801-02. Hill, on the other hand, has not offered any evidence to suggest that the Crime Lab persisted in substandard operations despite our warnings. See State v. Dominguez-Ramirez, 563 N.W.2d 245, 257 (Minn.1997) (refusing to exercise our supervisory powers where the State had not "deliberately ignore[d] our prior directives"). Additionally, the Legislature has since taken action to address the concerns of substandard crime lab operations. See Minn.Stat. § 299C.157 (2014). Accordingly, we conclude that the invocation of our supervisory powers to adopt the requested presumption of contamination is not required to ensure the fair administration of justice.
Our holding today should not be read to condone in any way the Crime Lab's past operations. Rather, our holding reflects only that the conduct at issue in this case did not rise to the exacting level of a substantive due process violation or necessitate
Affirmed.
HUDSON, J., not having been a member of this court at the time of submission, took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.