SAN DIEGO CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER NEWS: USING RAP SHEETS TO PROVE PRIORS
USING RAP SHEETS TO PROVE PRIORS?
The DA used CLETS rap sheets to prove up the defendant's convictions. Does admission of rap sheets violate Crawford (541 U.S. 36), which bars use of testimonial hearsay unless the defendant had an opportunity to cross examine?
This Court of Appeal says no. They assure us that rap sheets aren’t testimonial, because they aren’t created to use as testimony, they’re just compilations of statistical data.
Of course, pure statistics wouldn’t establish the details of the prior convictions, needed to prove
that the priors qualify.
The Court of Appeal then says that the DA would end up having multiple witnesses to prove up the many levels of hearsay which appear in rap sheets, and might not even be able to figure out what witness should be called.
The Court of Appeal seems to think that this logic supports their point; if you think about it, it clearly wholly undermines their point. It is precisely the unreliable, many levels of hearsay that makes use of rap sheets a violation of the confrontation clause.
People v. Morris; 2008 DJ DAR 13699; DJ, 8/29/08; C/A 4th
