Ruling raises new questions about remote testimony in court
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press
An overturned conviction in Missouri is raising new questions about video testimony in criminal court cases nationwide. And the ruling could have ripple effects through a justice system increasingly reliant on remote technology as it struggles with a backlog of cases during the coronavirus pandemic. Missouri’s highest court on Tuesday reversed the statutory rape conviction of a St. Louis man. The court found that an investigator’s video testimony violated the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. Unlike many pandemic-era cases, the trial judge went ahead despite the defendant’s objections.
