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SCOTUS limits reach of confrontation clause in Michigan v. Bryant

By Douglas A. Berman

Because the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause has been held not to apply at sentencing, today's SCOTUS ruling about the reach of the clause today in Michigan v. Bryant is not technically an issue of sentencing law and policy.  Nevertheless, the authors of today's opinions -- Justice Sotomayor for the Court, Justice Thomas with a separate concurrence, and Justices Scalia and Ginsberg in dissent (and Justice Kagan not participating) -- and the opinion itself are likely of great interest to all criminal justice participants.  Here is how the opinion for the Court gets started: At respondent Richard Bryant?s trial, the court admitted statements that the victim, Anthony Covington, made to police officers who discovered him mortally wounded in a gas station parking lot...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 28, 2011 (boomark / email).