The Appellate Division continued in relevant part: Having applied, as we must, the doctrinal holdings of Crawford and Davis to the hearsay statements before us, we now address the practical ramifications of these constitutional analyses. We do so with a full awareness that our case law precedents are not mere theoretical abstractions, but rather serve as guideposts that have real-world impacts in courtrooms for lawyers, clients, and witnesses in everyday settings.
The upshot of classifying declarant’s out-of-court statement as testimonial under Crawford is that the declarant must appear in court for cross-examination by defense counsel for the State to make use of his or her statement for its truth. That is no minor consequence. Laboratory technicians such as Joseph Messana and hospital workers such as Roger Gallant would need to divert from their regular functions, in testing substances and treating sick people, and travel to courthouses to vouch for the contents of their certified reports. These burdens are especially palpable for hospital workers such as Gallant, a person who does not earn his livelihood as a civil servant but rather as a medical provider who serendipitously had a brief professional encounter in the emergency room with a police officer and an apparently-inebriated motorist.
We take judicial notice that the municipal courts where DWI trials are conducted in this State frequently operate in the evenings. The courts are scattered among over 500 municipalities, sometimes being located at considerable distances from the nearest hospital where drunk drivers may be brought to have their blood drawn. These practical realities trigger significant concerns about the burdens we anticipate will be imposed upon nurses, phlebotomists, and other hospital workers by virtue of holding that their presence at DWI trials is constitutionally essential. We also take judicial notice of the general shortage of nurses, which appears to be more severe in our state than it is nationally.
While these are valid concerns, the Court overlooks the cost of dispensing with the fundamental right of cross-examination. Doing so heightens the risk of wrongful conviction and imprisonment. That is why our ancestors had to fight against British tyranny to have it included in the Sixth Amendment to the federal constitution.
