State v. Darden

Summary

The court held that Darden's confrontation right entitled him to cross-examine the State's key surveillance officer about the precise location of his observation post because that information was relevant to testing the officer's ability to observe and identify Darden. The court limited the compelling-state-interest test to exclusion of prejudicial evidence and declined to recognize a statutory or common-law surveillance-location privilege. The conviction was reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.