NY’s High Court Rules Testimony by Prosecutor's Forensic Psychiatrist Recounting 3rd-Party Statements Where 3rd Parties Aren’t Available for Cross-Exam Violates Fed Constitution and Isn’t Admissible

People v. Goldstein, 2005 N.Y. Slip Op. 09654, 2005 WL 3477726 (N.Y. Dec. 20, 2005).

In recent years forensic evaluators have been encouraged to expand the information on which they rely beyond their examination of the defendant and the clinical record to include third-party data from sources such as family and acquaintances of the defendant.  A ruling by the high court of New York has placed limits in that state on testimony based on this practice and raised issues that may reverberate in other states...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 1