Wisconsin Law Journal - Supreme Court upholds right to confront witness

Mark D. Jensen, convicted earlier this year of murdering his wife in 1998, may
have to be retried.
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its
long-awaited decision in Giles v. California. The high court rejected the State
of California’s theory that the defendant, by killing the witness, waived his
right to question her. The majority found that theory was contrary to the common
law embodied in the Confrontation Clause.
Speaking for the majority, Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote, “American courts never – prior to 1985 – invoked
forfeiture outside the context of deliberate witness tampering.”
In Jensen’s
case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted the same theory as California
had.

Wisconsin Law Journal - Article