United States v. Doyle, No. 11-3077 (7th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDoyle was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for distributing heroin that resulted in the death of Ward. At trial, the government presented two expert witnesses. During direct examination of Dr. Burch, the St. Louis Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, the government began laying a foundation to admit into evidence the Post Mortem Report. Doyle’s counsel, with the intention to “help things along,” stated that he had no objection to any of the government’s medical reports coming in as evidence. The district court then admitted into evidence all of the government’s medical exhibits, including the Medical Examiner’s findings form, created by Dr. Dutra and containing notes concerning Ward’s cause of death. The form lists “Acute heroin and cocaine intoxication” as the cause of death, but the words “and cocaine intoxication” are crossed out. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting Doyle’s argument that admission of the form without the testimony of its author violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. In light of the trial record as a whole, Doyle did not satisfy his burden to establish that the outcome of the trial would probably have been different.
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