Right to question witnesses
Katherine Lea Stanfield v. Tyvand
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- Katherine Stanfield asked the U.S.
- Who it affects
- Stanfield’s request for Supreme Court review ended, but the Court did not decide whether her trial violated her rights.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
Supreme Court to review her claim that her trial violated her right to question witnesses against her because a pathologist relied partly on a lab technician’s out-of-court evidence about a child’s death, and that Idaho’s highest court misapplied federal law. The Court refused to hear the case (denied review), so it did not decide whether her claims were correct.
The dispute arose from expert testimony at Stanfield’s trial and her later challenge to how Idaho’s courts handled it.
Question presented
1. Whether Katherine Stanfield was deprived of her Sixth Amendment right to confront her accusers when the trial court allowed the State’s expert pathologist to offer her opinion that a child had died from severe, non-accidental trauma to his brain, when that opinion that was based, in large part, on testimonial evidence prepared out-of-court by a lab technician. 2. Whether the Idaho Supreme Court’s opinion on the Sixth Amendment question was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by this Court.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
AI analysis generated: Decision Record
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.