• We agree that the improper exclusion of his expert witness merits a new trial, but we conclude that the evidence before the district court was sufficient for the government to try him again without violating the Double Jeopardy Clause.

Professor Daniel Fischel, an expert on corporate law and economics, was the excluded expert witness. Prosecutors had argued that the defense failed to establish the reliability of Fischel’s opinions. Nottingham excluded Fischel in part because he thought it would not be helpful to the jury. But the appeals court rejected that reasoning:

• This misunderstands the nature of economic expertise. An economic expert is permitted not only to tell the jury that an economic concept “is an issue” but to analyze the concept and offer informed opinions. In other words, expert testimony may “assist the trier of fact to understand the facts already in the record, even if all it does is put those facts in context. ….That is why expert economic testimony is routine when a materiality determination requires the jury to decide the effect of information on the market. ….Armchair economics is not the way to decide complex securities cases [citations omitted].

NYT/Reuters here.

Now it has been reported (Brandweek NRx via Junkfood Science) that Schering President Carrie Smith Cox sold 900,000 shares of company stock worth $28 million last spring, after the clinical trials ended but long before the results were released. 

Whatever comes next, we can only hope for the demise of the obnoxious and misleading Vytorin commercials.