{"id":1592,"date":"2011-02-28T16:34:15","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T16:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2011\/02\/united-states-supreme-court-di.html"},"modified":"2011-02-28T16:34:15","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T16:34:15","slug":"united-states-supreme-court-di","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/united-states-supreme-court-di\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Supreme Court diminishes right of confrontation in case of Michigan v. Bryant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Michigan v. Bryant,<\/u> decided today, <\/a>diminishes the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. The Court held that statements are nontestimonial and thus not covered by the Sixth Amendment confrontation clause when the primary purpose of the statement is to allow the police to respond to an ongoing emergency. The Court’s opinion represents a substantial departure from the Court’s recent cases of Crawford v. Washington<\/u>, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) <\/a>and Melendez Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. __ (2009)<\/a> both affirming that the Constitution requires face to face confrontation under the Sixth Amendment. <\/p>\n

Four justices joined in this reasoning with Justice Thomas joining the majority based on the fact that the statement was not sufficiently formal to be testimonial. Accordingly, Justice Thomas defines the right of confrontation based on whether the statement is similar to the historical practices that the framers of the Constitution intended to curtail when drafting the confrontation clause. <\/p>\n

The Bryant<\/u> case is an unusual case as the police came upon a victim who was dying from a gun shot wound. The police asked the victim what happened and he identified the defendant as the shooter. The victim died, leaving his statements as the only evidence identifying the defendant is the shooter. The Court held that the circumstances of the emergency indicated that the primary purpose of the victim’s statement was to help the police respond to an ongoing emergency of capturing the assailant. The Court held that a person in the victim’s position would not have a purpose of identifying his shooter for future prosecution, but to assist the police in responding to the emergency. Further, the Court stressed that the primary purpose of the police was to respond to the medical emergency facing the victim. Additionally, the Court stated that the defendant’s medical condition and the informal nature of the questioning was relevant in determining the primary purpose of the statement. <\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Michigan v. Bryant, decided today, diminishes the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. The Court held that statements are nontestimonial and thus not covered by the Sixth Amendment confrontation clause when the primary purpose of the statement is to allow the police to respond to an ongoing emergency. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-states-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nUnited States Supreme Court diminishes right of confrontation in case of Michigan v. Bryant — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — February 28, 2011<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The United States Supreme Court's decision in Michigan v. 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