No. 20-6820

Eljarod Lawson v. California

Lower Court: California
Docketed: 2021-01-12
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: confrontation confrontation-clause constitutional-immunity due-process sexual-assault sixth-amendment sixth-fourteenth-amendment testimonial-hearsay witness-unavailability
Key Terms:
DueProcess JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2021-02-19
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Was the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation violated?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED A. Was the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation violated when the court allowed the use of the prior transcripted testimony of the complaining witness in this sexual assault case, who was physically available to testify, because her unprivileged refusal to testify was recognized as a type of witness “unavailability” under state law, or is Sixth Amendment “unavailability,” which is sufficient to predicate the constitutional use of testimonial hearsay, confined to historic categories such as death, illness, insanity, or the contrivance of the defendant to render the witness unavailable, that were extant at common law at the time the Sixth Amendment was adopted? B. Was the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment violated by a state law that conferred immunity on the complaining witness in a sexual assault case against any power of the court to impose an incarceratory sanction for refusal to testify in a case in which the complaining witness, without privilege, refused to testify? i

Docket Entries

2021-02-22
Petition DENIED.
2021-01-21
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/19/2021.
2021-01-12
Waiver of right of respondent State of California to respond filed.
2021-01-05
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due February 11, 2021)

Attorneys

Eljarod Lawson
Mark D. Greenberg — Petitioner
Mark D. Greenberg — Petitioner
State of California
Donna Marie ProvenzanoOffice of the California Attorney General, Respondent
Donna Marie ProvenzanoOffice of the California Attorney General, Respondent