Court Opinion

ID: 9709184
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:42:12.289261+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:46.643605
License: Public Domain

STATON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in result on the issue of confrontation. If the right to confrontation has been denied, it is not necessary to show prejudice. Prejudice is presumed. However, in the present case, I would hold that Stanger's right to confrontation has not been denied him. The Majority correctly points out that the right to confrontation is not absolute and is not to be taken literally.
As Justice O'Connor pointed out in Coy v. Iowa (1988), 487 U.S. 1012, 108 S.Ct. 2798, 2804, 101 LEd.2d 857:
While I agree with the Court that the Confrontation Clause was violated in this case, I wish to make clear that nothing in today's decision necessarily dooms such efforts by state legislatures to protect child witnesses. Initially, many such procedures may raise no substantial Confrontation Clause problem since they involve testimony in the presence of the defendant. (Emphasis added.)
This is clearly a recognition of the former practice of ex parte affidavits and the former practice of taking depositions by examining magistrates which excluded the defendants' cross-examination of the witness.
In Coy, supra, at 2804, Justice O'Connor further pointed out that:
But it is also not novel to recognize that a defendant's "right physically to face those who testify against him" ... even if located at the "core" of the Confrontation Clause, is not absolute, and I reject any suggestion to the contrary in the Court's opinion.