(AP) An overturned conviction in Missouri is raising new questions about video testimony in criminal court cases nationwide.
And the ruling could have ripple effects through a justice system increasingly reliant on remote technology as it struggles with a backlog of cases during the coronavirus pandemic.
Missouri’s highest court on Tuesday reversed the statutory rape conviction of a St. Louis man.
The court found that an investigator’s video testimony violated the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him.
Unlike many pandemic-era cases, the trial judge went ahead despite the defendant’s objections.
