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Conviction Based on Out of Court Statements Reversed

By Walin & Klarich

Many times, out of court statements are the only evidence available to the prosecution at trial. This usually happens because the victim is unwilling or unavailable to testify at trial. For example, a prosecutor would want a cop to be able to testify that a victim told that officer that the defendant hit him or her if the alleged victim is now unwilling to testify. The rules of evidence require that a person must be present in court and subject to a cross examination by opposing counsel in order for his/her statements against the defendant to be admitted into evidence. The United States Supreme Court upheld this requirement in Crawford v. Washington. The effect of this decision is that statements given to the police after the emergency part of the investigation is done will not be admissible as evidence against the defendant when the witness is unavailable to testify in court.continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).