Via Wally Olson at PointofLaw.com:
What does it take to convict an expert witness of perjury? Well, according to the Ninth Circuit (over dissents from O’Scannlain and four others), ruling last week, it’s not enough to catch the expert passing himself off in testimony as a specialist in orthopedic surgery when his actual residency was in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Very curiously, the Ninth Circuit judges decided that the misrepresentation was not material to the jury’s reception of Dr. Edmund Y. Chien’s testimony — even though he was testifying on a plaintiff’s future need for orthopedic surgery — and thus, on a habeas corpus petition, overturned his California state court perjury conviction.
As the dissent pointed out, “If two doctors gave me conflicting diagnoses about my need for invasive orthodpedic surgery, I know that I would be more inclined to trust the opinion of the actual orthodpedic surgery specialist.”
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