State v. Rogerson
Annotate this CaseDefendant was charged with four counts of unintentionally causing serious injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Before trial, the State moved to allow three out-of-state victims of the car accident and three lab analysts employed by the State to testify remotely via two-way videoconferencing technology rather than physically appearing in court. After a hearing, the district court granted the State’s motion for distance testimony. Defendant appealed, arguing that the trial court’s decision to permit the State’s witnesses to testify remotely violated his Sixth Amendment right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) before permitting a witness to testify via two-way videoconference, a court must make a case-specific determination that the denial of the defendant’s confrontation right is necessary to further an important public interest; and (2) applying this standard to the instant case, the district court erred in allowing the videoconference testimony.
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