Justices Back Bronx Shooting Suspect on Confronting Witness (1)

Waiving the constitutional right to confront witnesses will be much harder after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a man convicted in the shooting death of a 2-year-old bystander in New York.

In an 8-1 ruling authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday, the justices set a high bar for when the accused can lose their Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses at trial by testifying to misleading or incomplete statements, or “opening the door” to otherwise barred testimony.

While states have some flexibility to adopt procedural rules that govern how the confrontation right can be asserted, evidentiary rules regarding ...