Georgia v. Stephens
Annotate this CaseIn a pending murder case involving multiple defendants, the State appealed an order denying its pretrial motion to admit a witness’s out-of-court statement by reason of necessity because the witness, Harry Dimeco, was dead. The trial court ruled that the statement was inadmissible under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), based on the court’s determinations that the witness’s statement was testimonial in nature and that the defendants were not afforded the opportunity to cross-examine the witness prior to his death. On appeal, the State conceded that the statement at issue was testimonial because, when given, the statement was going to be used for prosecution purposes. The State also conceded that the defendants had no meaningful opportunity to cross-examine the witness. The State argued, however, that notwithstanding Confrontation Clause concerns, the statement could be admitted for a non-hearsay purpose, specifically, explaining the witness’s conduct as depicted in a video recording that the State intended to offer. The Georgia Supreme Court reviewed the trial court’s grant or denial of a motion in limine for abuse of discretion, and finding none, the Supreme Court affirmed.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.