Giles v. California

Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Kennedy join,

dissenting.

In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36 (2004), we held that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause bars ad*381mission against a criminal defendant of an un-cross-examined “testimonial” statement that an unavailable witness previously made out of court. Id., at 68. We simultaneously recognized an exception: that the defendant, by his own “wrongdoing,” can forfeit “on essentially equitable grounds” his Confrontation Clause right. Id., at 62. In Davis v. Washington, 547 U. S. 813 (2006), we again recognized this…