Nechomah, the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution includes a “Confrontation Clause” guaranteeing defendants in criminal cases the right to confront witnesses against them (by cross-examining them in court during the trial). For a long time Supreme Court precedent allowed states to get around this rule in various ways. Recent Supreme Court decisions, always with Justice Scalia in the majority, have strengthened confrontation clause rights. For example, if you get caught with what the police believe are illegal drugs and a forensic analyst issues a report saying the substance is cocaine, they used to be able to admit that into evidence even though the technician who did the analysis did not testify (and so the defendant’s attorney could not ask him questions about the test). Now, they have to produce the analyst to testify. This is important because many forensic tests are negligently or fraudulently conducted — which has led to many innocent people being convicted (even of serious crimes like rape and murder).
