The Ninth Circuit has reversed the agency’s rejection of expert witness testimony in a Convention Against Torture case. “If the Board rejects expert testimony, it must state ‘in the record why the testimony was insufficient to establish the probability of torture.’ Improperly rejected expert testimony is a legal error and, thus, per se reversible.” The court also rejected the agency’s assertion that the expert witness’ testimony should be accorded less weight because it was not corroborated by other documents in the record. “If an expert’s opinion could only be relied upon if it were redundant with other evidence in the record, there would be no need for experts.”
The full text of Castillo v. Barr can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/11/18/19-72745.pdf