Punch and Jurists

Williams v. Illinois, No. 10-8505 (U.S. Supreme Court) (567 U.S. 50; 132 S.Ct. 2221) (June 18, 2012) (Justice Alito) by Here a badly fractured held that the admission of expert testimony about the results of DNA testing performed by non-testifying crime lab analysts did not violate the Confrontation Clause - …

Bullcoming v. New Mexico, No. 09-10876 (U.S. Supreme Court) (564 U.S. 647; 131 S.Ct. 2705) (June 23, 2011) (Justice Ginsburg) by This case was, as much as anything else, an important test of whether the Supreme Court - in the aftermath of the retirements of Justices Stevens and Souter - …

U.S. v. Burden, No. 03-1727-cr-LEAD (2nd Cir.) (600 F.3d 204) (March 31, 2010) (Judge John R. Gibson) by Defendants' convictions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering statute (VCAR) are affirmed where: 1) sufficient evidence existed to support the jury's …

Briscoe v. Virginia, No. 07-11191 (U.S. Supreme Court) (559 U.S. 32; 130 S.Ct. 1316) (January 25, 2010) (Per Curiam) by Here the Court rejected, at least for now, any reconsideration of its controversial Confrontation Clause ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, which reinforced the rights of criminal defendants to challenge the …

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, No. 07-591 (U.S. Supreme Court) (557 U.S. 305; 129 S.Ct. 2527) (June 25, 2009) (Justice Scalia) by In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), the Supreme Court revitalized the Confrontation Clause by holding that the Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant's right to confront those "who 'bear …