The Court of Criminal Appeals does not like dog scent lineup evidence. While it has not come right out and declared such evidence categorically inadmissible (like polygraph evidence), it seems pretty close. With each new dog scent lineup case, we learn how unreliable this type of evidence can be.
In Winfrey v. State, the CCA overturned a capital murder conviction wherein the evidence included a dog scent lineup. The Court noted that the dog scent lineup along with the remainder of the evidence (all of it circumstantial) was only enough to raise a “suspicion of guilt,” but not enough to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The CCA overturned the conviction as being legally insufficient.
*Anytime we have a case involving a drug dog, we employ an expert consultant to review the dog handling technique of the officer. One of the best drug dog experts in Steve Scott with Scott’s Police K9 LLC in Flower Mound, Texas.
