People v. Cage

Opinion

BAXTER, J.

In Crawford v. Washington (2004) 541 U.S. 36 [158 L.Ed.2d 177, 124 S.Ct. 1354] (Crawford), the United States Supreme Court announced a new standard for determining when the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment prohibits the use of hearsay evidence—i.e., an out-of-court statement offered for its truth—against a criminal defendant. Crawford held that this clause protects an accused against hearsay uttered by one who spoke as a “ ‘witness[]’ ” “ ‘bearing] testimony’ ” (541 U.S. at p. 51) if the declarant neither takes the stand at trial nor was otherwise available for…