Commonwealth v. Dorisca

The purpose of the confrontation clause is “ ‘to put beyond the possibility of alteration except by the people themselves the principle already established as a part of the common law that the witnesses should confront the accused face to face’ ... [in order to] ‘exclude any evidence by deposition, which could be given orally in the presence of the accused.’ ” Commonwealth v. Bergstrom, 402 Mass. 534, 544-545 (1988), quoting from Commonwealth v. Gallo, 275 Mass. 320, 333 (1931), and Commonwealth v. Slavski, 245 Mass. 405, 413 (1923). See Coy v. Iowa, 487 U.S. 1012, 1015-1016 (1988). There are…