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New Jersey Supreme Court Makes "Bad Law" in Child Abuse Case, Denigrating Our Constitutional Right to Confront Our Accusers (Part 3)

By Lependorf & Silverstein

Part 3 of a 3-part series about the Right to Confrontation. By Peter B. Paris ?Testimonial? or ?Non-Testimonial?: That is the Constitutional Question In Crawford, the Court?s key point was that, if the out-of-court statement was ?testimonial,? it cannot be admitted in evidence without an opportunity to cross-examine the person who made the statement. But, the U.S. Supreme Court left the definition of ?testimonial? for another day. That day came two years later in Davis and Hammon, in which the Court presented two competing examples of potentially admissible hearsay: one that was ?testimonial? and another that was not. On the one hand, Davis held that if a person is in immediate danger and calls 911 for help, the statements to the 911 operator are not ?testimonial? because the person making the statement is simply seeking help, not expecting that their words will be used later in court...continue to full post

Full post as published by New Jersey Criminal Defense Blog on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).