Court Opinion

ID: 9685683
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:57:08.870038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:09.395293
License: Public Domain

KELLEY, Justice
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. At all steps of this criminal prosecution the defendant duly objected to the admission of out of court statements of the alleged victim on the grounds that since the testimony of the victim was crucial to the establishment of the elements of the crime charged, the state had the obligation to produce the victim in court for examination and cross-examination under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section Six of the Minnesota Constitution, each of which provides that the “accused shall enjoy the right * * * to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” Any statute or court-promulgated rule of evidence, or any concern for “practical problems of prosecutors,” in my view, cannot dilute that constitutional mandate. Moreover, admission of evidence in violation of the confrontation clause is seldom, if ever, harmless. State v. Hansen, 312 N.W.2d 96, 102-105 (Minn.1981). I would hold that if the state wishes to establish the crime by victim testimony, which is almost always the case in this type of prosecution, it must do so by producing the alleged victim on the witness stand in open court so the accused may be afforded his constitutional right of confrontation.
Consequently I would remand to the trial court for a new trial.