Michigan v. Bryant

Michigan v. Bryant
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 5, 2010 Decided February 28, 2011
Full case name	Michigan, Petitioner v. Richard Perry Bryant
Docket no.	09-150
Citations	562 U.S. 344 (more) 131 S. Ct. 1143; 179 L. Ed. 2d 93
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Defendant convicted at trial; affirmed, case n°247039, 2004 WL 1882661 (Mich. Ct. App., 2004); vacated and remanded in light of Davis v. Washington, 477 Mich. 902, 722 N.W.2d 797 (2006); affirmed anew, case n°247039, 2007 WL 675471 (Mich. Ct. App., 2006); reversed, 483 Mich. 132, 768 N.W.2d 65 (2009)
Subsequent	Remanded to Michigan Supreme Court.
Holding
Dying murder victim identification and description of the shooter and of the location of the shooting were not testimonial statements, because they had a “primary purpose . . . to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency.”. Their admission at trial did not violate the defendant rights under the Confrontation clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Sotomayor, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Breyer, Alito
Concurrence	Thomas (in judgment)
Dissent	Scalia
Dissent	Ginsburg
Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. VI

Michigan v. Bryant, 562 U.S. 344 (2011), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court considered a criminal defendant's Confrontation Clause right regarding statements made by a deceased declarant.

Background[]

Detroit Police Department officers were dispatched to a gas station parking lot, and found Anthony Covington wounded. Covington told them that he had been shot by Bryant outside Bryant's house. At trial, the officers testified about what Covington said. Bryant was found guilty of murder. The testimony of the officers was challenged as a testimonial hearsay. Ultimately, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed his conviction, holding that the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause, as explained in Crawford v. Washington (2004), rendered Covington's statements inadmissible testimonial hearsay.

Opinion of the Court[]

The United States Supreme Court reversed the Michigan Supreme Court's ruling, and held that the victim's statements were not testimonial and that they were properly admitted at trial. The test the court used was the primary purpose test. That test draws a distinction between statements made to the authorities that are aimed at gathering facts for the purpose of prosecution versus statements made because there is an ongoing emergency.^[1]

See also[]

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 562

References[]

External links[]

• Text of Michigan v. Bryant, 562 U.S. 344 (2011) is available from: CourtListener  Justia  Oyez (oral argument audio)  Supreme Court (slip opinion) 
• Michigan v. Bryant Resource Page Containing background materials and links to key materials on the case.
• Opinion by the Michigan Supreme Court
• Michigan v. Bryant coverage on SCOTUSblog