Gilbert Aguilar v. Jeanne Woodford

Gilbert Aguilar was convicted of first-degree murder after a jury trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court. A young Hispanic man got out of a white Volkswagen Beetle and shot John Guerrero while Guerrero’s car was stopped at a stoplight. The only question at trial was the identity of the shooter. Aguilar’s defense was that another young Hispanic man, Richard Osuna, had shot Guerrero.

The prosecution introduced evidence that a police dog named Reilly had alerted to a “scent pad,” showing that Aguilar’s scent was present on the front passenger seat of the white Volkswagen. 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. Following the stipulation, that court had excluded evidence of Reilly’s scent identification from the earlier trial.

Reilly’s scent identification was the only evidence that tied Aguilar to the white Volkswagen. Putting the scent identification to one side, the evidence against Aguilar was weak. No clear motive for Aguilar to shoot Guerrero was ever suggested at trial. No…