Petition of the day
on Nov 27, 2013 at 10:14 pm
The petition of the day is:
Issue: (1) Whether the Confrontation Clause prohibits a government expert, who merely reviewed a nontestifying forensic analyst’s certified report, notes, and results and did not personally conduct or observe any of the relevant analyses, from testifying regarding the analyst’s procedures and conclusions and opine on the analyst’s results; and (2) whether the Seventh Circuit erred by applying a harmless-error standard that ignores the impact that testimony admitted in violation of the Confrontation Clause, which the government relied on in closing arguments, had on the jury, and instead focused on the sufficiency of the remaining evidence, directly conflicting with this Court’s precedent and that of other federal courts of appeals.