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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE
January 4, 2006 Session STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JONATHAN WESLEY STEPHENSON
Automatic Appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeals Criminal Court for Cocke County Nos. 5012 and 5040 Ben W. Hooper II, Judge

No. E2003-01091-SC-DDT-DD - Filed on June 2, 2006

ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., J., concurring in part and dissenting in part. While I concur in part with the conclusion of the majority affirming Stephenson's convictions, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority's opinion concluding that the Sixth Amendment right to confrontation of witnesses and the state constitutional right to confront witnesses "face-to-face" does not apply to capital sentencing hearings. The Sixth Amendment provides: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him." U.S. Const. amend. VI. Similarly, Article I, section 9 of the Tennessee Constitution provides "[t]hat in all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath the right . . . to meet the witnesses face to face . . . ." It is disingenuous to argue that the sentencing phase of a capital murder case

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Tennessee Law