How Appealing



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Pa. Superior Court issues ruling in Confrontation Clause case that I argued in March 2009: As noted in two earlier posts (see here and here), in March 2009 I argued an appeal to a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in which the main question presented on appeal involved whether the defendant’s rights under the Confrontation Clause were violated by the trial court’s admission into evidence at a jury trial of the videotaped testimony of a child who provided incriminating testimony against the defendant on direct examination but who then refused to or was unable to complete her direct examination and thus was entirely unavailable for cross-examination.

I previously linked to the Brief for Appellant and Reply Brief for Appellant that I filed in the appeal.

Yesterday, the appellate court issued this unanimous decision holding that the defendant’s Confrontation Clause rights were violated and that the defendant is entitled to a new trial on all of the charges on which he had been convicted.

And now, because it is quite the beach day today in Margate City, New Jersey, I must return to my regularly scheduled summer vacation.

Posted at 10:30 AM by Howard Bashman