SALT LAKE CITY, March 21 (UPI) -- The death of a key witness in a Utah artifact theft case may give the defendants a legal escape route, experts say.
Those accused in the Four Corners artifact-trafficking case will likely fall back on their Sixth Amendment rights to confront their accuser, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday.
When Ted Gardiner shot himself March 1, 2008, it was only weeks before he was to testify for the first time on behalf of the prosecution in cases built for the FBI, the U.S. attorney for Utah and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Tribune said.
Gardiner had secretly recorded dealings where he bought and sold artifacts that were obtained illegally from public and tribal lands, court documents say. Under the direction of the FBI, Gardiner bought more than 250 archaeological artifacts totaling $335,685 at the direction of the FBI.
Now that he's dead, prosecutors going to court against 22 defendants will be facing the defense's ability to squelch the tapes under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing the rights of the accused in criminal actions, the newspaper said.
"The premise of the Sixth Amendment is, we have to subject the accuser to the crucible of cross-examination," said Kent Hart, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "This really is a hot issue in the law right now."
