Seattle Criminal Attorney | Testimonail Statements
Posted on January 3, 2010 | Category: Legal Trivia
Inside a court room, time and space are frozen in some respects. Specific rules apply that often result in outcomes that don’t make much common sense. This is why it is important to have a Seattle criminal attorney on your side – they understand these often atypical rules and can help you so you don’t fall victim to them for lack of knowing.
A lot of these rules, particularly within a courtroom, deal with evidence, and particularly the admission of evidence. And a hot button issue of late has been the admission of testimonial evidence over the objection of defense counsel. This has become a big issue of late because a U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the game regarding witness statements that are recorded or given outside the courtroom that the prosecutor then wants to admit within the courtroom.
The example that we see come up time and time again is 911 recordings. What often happens (particularly in domestic violence cases) is that an abused calls 911 to violate some wrongdoing by a significant other. This can happen either while the event is going on or when it has just ended. But when the cops arrest the significant other a change of heart happens, and the victim doesn’t want anything bad to happen to them.
Often the victim will decide not to show up to testify against their significant other on the day of trial. For criminal attorneys Seattle, we love this, because without the testimony of the victim, the elements of the crime often can’t be proven, and the case is dismissed. Except when there are 911 calls, and the prosecutor wants to introduce the calls.
To get the calls into evidence, the prosecutor has to show one of two things: either the statements were given with a primary objective outside of reporting a crime (nontestimonial – asking for help, for example); or the statements were given with a primary objective of reporting a crime (testimonial), but the witness is unavailable and the defendant had a prior chance to question them under oath.
If you are facing a situation where there is an argument that the evidence to be presented against you is testimonial or nontestimonial, don’t try to handle it yourself. Get a Seattle criminal attorney to help you out. It can mean the difference between winning and losing your case.
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2 Responses to “Seattle Criminal Attorney | Testimonail Statements”
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January 23rd, 2010 at 2:05 pm
More power to you.i have actually bookmarked it to show some of my friends
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:02 am
I would also suggest you get a lawyer that can handle a case with testimony and non-testimony.