The Confrontation Clause: Where things stand after Arizona v. Smith

The Confrontation clause of the U.S. Constitution gives criminal defendants the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him”. The interpretation of this right at the U.S. Supreme Court has changed significantly over the past 20 years beginning with Crawford v. Washington. This term, the Supreme Court once again addressed this issue in a case coming from our very own Arizona courts.

This episode reviews several of the cases that brought us to Smith v. Arizona, what the decision means for current criminal practitioners, and tries to predict where we go from here. Conversations like this one are necessary as we decide what the fallout from this decision will be in ongoing cases.