WASHINGTON -- — The Supreme Court dealt a setback to prosecutors in domestic violence cases Wednesday, ruling that a slain woman's earlier reports to the police of her boyfriend's threats may not be used against him at his trial unless it can be shown he killed her in order to silence her as a witness.
Often, when spouses or partners are found dead at home, the strongest evidence to show the victim was murdered comes from their earlier statements to police. But the high court, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, said the use of such statements at trial violates the defendant's right to "confront" the accuser.
The 6-3 decision overturned the murder conviction of a Los Angeles man who shot and killed his girlfriend. Dwayne Giles, the convicted killer, admitted he shot Brenda Avie six times when she came to his house in South Los Angeles on Sept. 29, 2002, but he said he acted in self-defense.
Giles was convicted after the jury heard a police officer's report quoting Avie. Three weeks before the slaying, the officer had responded to a domestic disturbance call and encountered the couple. The officer said he took the woman aside, and she said Giles had pulled a knife on her and had "threatened to kill her."
The California Supreme Court upheld the conviction for first-degree murder and rejected Giles' claim that his rights were violated. The state justices said the defendant had no right to benefit from his own wrongdoing. After all, Giles' girlfriend could not testify at the trial, because he had shot her.
Nonetheless, Scalia said the fact that the defendant caused the witness to be absent did not call for waiving his right to keep her statements out of court. The 6th Amendment says, "In criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him," Scalia noted. "We decline to approve an exception to the Confrontation Clause unheard of at the time of the founding or for 200 years thereafter," he said in Giles vs. California.
The three dissenters -- Justices Stephen G. Breyer, John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy -- said the court's rigid rule would cause "great practical difficulties," particularly in domestic violence cases.
In response, Scalia questioned their focus on domestic violence. "Is the suggestion that we should have one Confrontation Clause for all other crimes, but a special, improvised Confrontation Clause for those crimes that are frequently directed at women?" he wrote. "Domestic violence is an intolerable offense. . . . But for that serious crime, as for others, abridging the constitutional rights of criminal defendants is not in the state's arsenal."
