State v. Kini

If business records are ever admitted without implicating a defendant’s confrontation rights, the admissibility will be limited to those records that reflect only facts and not any types of opinions, exercises of judgment, or investigative facts that trigger the confrontation right.

Petitioner appealed a conviction for DUII and Reckless Driving. On appeal, Petitioner argued that the trial court violated his Article I, section 11 and Sixth Amendment confrontation rights when it allowed the state to admit into evidence hospital records. Petitioner asserted that admitting the hospital records without requiring the state to show that the declarants were unavailable, violated petitioner’s right to confront witnesses against him, as is guaranteed by Article I, section 11. In response, the State argued that the hospital records were business record entries in the hospital made for its own administrative purposes, and therefore their admission did not violate petitioner’s Article I, section 11 confrontation rights. If business records are ever admitted without implicating a defendant’s confrontation rights, the admissibility will be limited to those records that reflect only facts and not any types of opinions, exercises of judgment, or investigative facts that trigger the confrontation right. The Court found that the hospital records from petitioner’s DUII incident supplied declarant’s opinion and judgment in addition to the fact of petitioner’s blood alcohol content and therefore triggered petitioner’s confrontation rights. Reversed and remanded.