Michigan v. Bryant
| Michigan v. Bryant | |
|---|---|
| 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 | |
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| 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 further developed the "primary purpose" test to determine whether statements are "testimonial" for Confrontation Clause purposes. In Bryant, the Court expanded upon the test first articulated in Davis v. Washington, "addressing for the first time circumstances in which the 'ongoing emergency' discussed in Davis extended to a potential threat to the respond police and the public at large."
The Court stated that determination of whether an interrogation's primary purpose was to assist in an "ongoing emergency" was an objective evaluation of the circumstances "in which the encounter occur[ed] and the statements and actions of the parties."