Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Texas Tech Law Review
Publication Date
Fall 2012
ISSN
0564-6197
Page Number
33
Keywords
Confrontation Clause, jurisprudence, electronic communication
Disciplines
Jurisprudence | Law
Abstract
Much of the recent commentary on the Confrontation Clause focuses on the past. Commentators (and Supreme Court Justices) evaluate the evolving jurisprudence by comparing the confrontation right articulated in Crawford v. Washington and its progeny to the right that existed in 1791. This Essay shifts the focus to the future, exploring how the Supreme Court's new Confrontation Clause jurisprudence will operate in a world where communication is increasingly informal and electronic.
A large and increasing portion of our social discourse takes place electronically, through email and texting, as well as on social media Internet
sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These communications are particularly
susceptible to use in litigation. Unlike oral communication, and even much of traditional written discourse, electronic communications are difficult to keep private because (1) they are often broadcast to multiple recipients; (2) they reside (or pass through) computer servers owned and operated by third parties; and (3) they are generally preserved, sometimes indefinitely, on the computers involved in their creation and transmission.4 As a consequence, this form of evidence can be discovered long after its creation by savvy investigators and presented to a jury in its original, and thus uniquely compelling, form.
Recommended Citation
Jeffrey Bellin,
Applying Crawford's Confrontation Right in a Digital Age, 45 Texas Tech Law Review. 33
(2012)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1674