United States Supreme Court

“ We have never held that the prosecution must have issued a subpoena if it wishes to prove that a witness who goes into hiding is unavailable for Confrontation Clause purposes, and the issuance of a subpoena may do little good if a sexual assault witness is so fearful of an assailant that she is willing to risk his acquittal by failing to testify at trial. ”

“ And, more to the point, the deferential standard of review set out in 28 U.S.C. §2254 (d) does not permit a federal court to overturn a state court's decision on the question of unavailability merely because the federal court identifies additional steps that might have been taken. Under AEDPA, if the state-court decision was reasonable, it cannot be disturbed.
The petition for a writ of certiorari and Cross' motion to proceed in forma pauperis are granted, and the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is
Reversed. ”

“ Cross argued, among other things, that the state court had unreasonably applied clearly established Supreme Court precedents holding that the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment precludes the admission of the prior testimony of an allegedly unavailable witness unless the prosecution made a good-faith effort to obtain the declarant's presence at trial. The District Court denied Cross' petition, but the Seventh Circuit reversed. ”