Davis v. Washington

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2005 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.

The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been

prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.

See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON

No. 05–5224. Argued March 20, 2006—Decided June 19, 2006*

In No. 05–5224, a 911 operator ascertained from Michelle McCottry

that she had been assaulted by her former boyfriend, petitioner

Davis, who had just fled the scene. McCottry did not testify at

Davis’s trial for felony violation of a domestic no-contact order, but

the court admitted the 911 recording despite Davis’s objection, which

he based on the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause. He was

convicted. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed, as did the

State Supreme Court, which concluded that, inter alia, the portion of

the 911 conversation in which McCottry identified Davis as her as

sailant was not testimonial.

In No. 05–5705, when police responded to a reported domestic dis

turbance at the home of Amy and Hershel Hammon, Amy told them

that nothing was wrong, but gave them permission to enter. Once

inside, one officer kept petitioner Hershel in the kitchen while the

other interviewed Amy elsewhere and had her complete and sign a

battery affidavit. Amy did not appear at Hershel’s bench trial for, in

ter alia, domestic battery, but her affidavit and testimony from the

officer who questioned her were admitted over Hershel’s objection

that he had no opportunity to cross-examine her. Hershel was con

victed, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed in relevant part.

The State Supreme Court also affirmed, concluding that, although

Amy’s affidavit was testimonial and wrongly admitted, it was harm

less beyond a reasonable doubt.

Held:

1. The Confrontation Clause bars “admission of testimonial state

ments of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was un

——————

* Together with No. 05–5705, Hammon v. Indiana, on certiorari to

the Supreme Court of Indiana.

2 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Syllabus

available to testify, and the defendant had a prior opportunity for

cross-examination.” Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, 53–54.

These cases require the Court to determine which police “interroga

tions” produce statements that fall within this prohibition. Without

attempting to produce an exhaustive classification of all conceivable

statements as either testimonial or nontestimonial, it suffices to de

cide the present cases to hold that statements are nontestimonial

when made in the course of police interrogation under circumstances

objectively indicating that the primary purpose of interrogation is to

enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency. They are tes

timonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that there is no

such ongoing emergency, and that the primary purpose of the inter

rogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to

later criminal prosecution. Pp. 6–7.

2. McCottry’s statements identifying Davis as her assailant were

not testimonial. Pp. 8–14.

(a) This case requires the Court to decide whether the Confronta

tion Clause applies only to testimonial hearsay, and, if so, whether

the 911 recording qualifies. Crawford suggested the answer to the

first question, noting that “the Confrontation Clause . . . applies to

‘witnesses’ against the accused—in other words, those who ‘bear tes

timony.’ ” Only “testimonial statements” cause a declarant to be a

witness. The Court is unaware of any early American case invoking

the Confrontation Clause or the common-law right to confrontation

that did not involve testimony as thus defined. Well into the 20th

century, this Court’s jurisprudence was carefully applied only in the

testimonial context, and its later cases never in practice dispensed

with the Confrontation Clause requirements of unavailability and

prior cross-examination in cases involving testimonial hearsay.

Pp. 8–11.

(b) The question in Davis, therefore, is whether, objectively con

sidered, the interrogation during the 911 call produced testimonial

statements. In contrast to Crawford, where the interrogation took

place at a police station and was directed solely at establishing a past

crime, a 911 call is ordinarily designed primarily to describe current

circumstances requiring police assistance. The difference is apparent

here. McCottry was speaking of events as they were actually hap

pening, while Crawford’s interrogation took place hours after the

events occurred. Moreover, McCottry was facing an ongoing emer

gency. Further, the statements elicited were necessary to enable the

police to resolve the present emergency rather than simply to learn

what had happened in the past. Finally, the difference in the level of

formality is striking. Crawford calmly answered questions at a sta

tion house, with an officer-interrogator taping and taking notes,

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3

Syllabus

while McCottry’s frantic answers were provided over the phone, in an

environment that was not tranquil, or even safe. Thus, the circum

stances of her interrogation objectively indicate that its primary pur

pose was to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency.

She was not acting as a witness or testifying. Pp. 11–14.

3. Amy Hammon’s statements were testimonial. They were not

much different from those in Crawford. It is clear from the circum

stances that Amy’s interrogation was part of an investigation into

possibly criminal past conduct. There was no emergency in progress,

she told the police when they arrived that things were fine, and the

officer questioning her was seeking to determine not what was hap

pening but what had happened. Objectively viewed, the primary, if

not sole, purpose of the interrogation was to investigate a possible

crime. While the formal features of Crawford’s interrogation

strengthened her statements’ testimonial aspect, such features were

not essential to the point. In both cases, the declarants were sepa

rated from the defendants, the statements recounted how potentially

criminal past events began and progressed, and the interrogation

took place some time after the events were over. For the same rea

sons the comparison to Crawford is compelling, the comparison to

Davis is unpersuasive. The statements in Davis were taken when

McCottry was alone, unprotected by police, and apparently in imme

diate danger from Davis. She was seeking aid, not telling a story

about the past. Pp. 14–17.

4. The Indiana courts may determine on remand whether a claim

of forfeiture by wrongdoing—under which one who obtains a wit

ness’s absence by wrongdoing forfeits the constitutional right to con

frontation—is properly raised in Hammon, and, if so, whether it is

meritorious. Absent such a finding, the Sixth Amendment operates

to exclude Amy Hammon’s affidavit. Pp. 18–19.

No. 05–5224, 154 Wash. 2d 291, 111 P. 3d 844, affirmed; No. 05–5705,

829 N. E. 2d 444, reversed and remanded.

SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,

C. J., and STEVENS, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, BREYER, and ALITO,

JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in

part and dissenting in part.

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006_) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to

notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash

ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order

that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

Nos. 05–5224 and 05–5705

_________________

ADRIAN MARTELL DAVIS, PETITIONER

05–5224 v.

WASHINGTON

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF

WASHINGTON

HERSHEL HAMMON, PETITIONER

05–5705 v.

INDIANA

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF

INDIANA

[June 19, 2006]

JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.

These cases require us to determine when statements

made to law enforcement personnel during a 911 call or at

a crime scene are “testimonial” and thus subject to the

requirements of the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation

Clause.

I

A

The relevant statements in Davis v. Washington, No.

05–5224, were made to a 911 emergency operator on

February 1, 2001. When the operator answered the initial

call, the connection terminated before anyone spoke. She

2 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

reversed the call, and Michelle McCottry answered. In the

ensuing conversation, the operator ascertained that

McCottry was involved in a domestic disturbance with her

former boyfriend Adrian Davis, the petitioner in this case:

“911 Operator: Hello.

“Complainant: Hello.

“911 Operator: What’s going on?

“Complainant: He’s here jumpin’ on me again.

“911 Operator: Okay. Listen to me carefully. Are

you in a house or an apartment?

“Complainant: I’m in a house.

“911 Operator: Are there any weapons?

“Complainant: No. He’s usin’ his fists.

“911 Operator: Okay. Has he been drinking?

“Complainant: No.

“911 Operator: Okay, sweetie. I’ve got help started.

Stay on the line with me, okay?

“Complainant: I’m on the line.

“911 Operator: Listen to me carefully. Do you

know his last name?

“Complainant: It’s Davis.

“911 Operator: Davis? Okay, what’s his first name?

“Complainant: Adran

“911 Operator: What is it?

“Complainant: Adrian.

“911 Operator: Adrian?

“Complainant: Yeah.

“911 Operator: Okay. What’s his middle initial?

“Complainant: Martell. He’s runnin’ now.” App. in

No. 05–5224, pp. 8–9.

As the conversation continued, the operator learned that

Davis had “just r[un] out the door” after hitting McCottry,

and that he was leaving in a car with someone else. Id., at

9–10. McCottry started talking, but the operator cut her

off, saying, “Stop talking and answer my questions.” Id.,

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3

Opinion of the Court

at 10. She then gathered more information about Davis

(including his birthday), and learned that Davis had told

McCottry that his purpose in coming to the house was “to

get his stuff,” since McCottry was moving. Id., at 11–12.

McCottry described the context of the assault, id., at 12,

after which the operator told her that the police were on

their way. “They’re gonna check the area for him first,”

the operator said, “and then they’re gonna come talk to

you.” Id., at 12–13.

The police arrived within four minutes of the 911 call

and observed McCottry’s shaken state, the “fresh injuries

on her forearm and her face,” and her “frantic efforts to

gather her belongings and her children so that they could

leave the residence.” 154 Wash. 2d 291, 296, 111 P. 3d

844, 847 (2005) (en banc).

The State charged Davis with felony violation of a do

mestic no-contact order. “The State’s only witnesses were

the two police officers who responded to the 911 call. Both

officers testified that McCottry exhibited injuries that

appeared to be recent, but neither officer could testify as

to the cause of the injuries.” Ibid. McCottry presumably

could have testified as to whether Davis was her assailant,

but she did not appear. Over Davis’s objection, based on

the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, the

trial court admitted the recording of her exchange with

the 911 operator, and the jury convicted him. The Wash

ington Court of Appeals affirmed, 116 Wash. App. 81, 64

P. 3d 661 (2003). The Supreme Court of Washington, with

one dissenting justice, also affirmed, concluding that the

portion of the 911 conversation in which McCottry identi

fied Davis was not testimonial, and that if other portions

of the conversation were testimonial, admitting them was

harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. 154 Wash. 2d, at

305, 111 P. 3d, at 851. We granted certiorari. 546 U. S.

___ (2005).

4 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

B

In Hammon v. Indiana, No. 05–5705, police responded

late on the night of February 26, 2003, to a “reported

domestic disturbance” at the home of Hershel and Amy

Hammon. 829 N. E. 2d 444, 446 (Ind. 2005). They found

Amy alone on the front porch, appearing “ ‘somewhat

frightened,’ ” but she told them that “ ‘nothing was the

matter,’ ” id., at 446, 447. She gave them permission to

enter the house, where an officer saw “a gas heating unit

in the corner of the living room” that had “flames coming

out of the . . . partial glass front. There were pieces of

glass on the ground in front of it and there was flame

emitting from the front of the heating unit.” App. in No.

05–5705, p. 16.

Hershel, meanwhile, was in the kitchen. He told the

police “that he and his wife had ‘been in an argument’ but

‘everything was fine now’ and the argument ‘never became

physical.’ ” 829 N. E. 2d, at 447. By this point Amy had

come back inside. One of the officers remained with

Hershel; the other went to the living room to talk with

Amy, and “again asked [her] what had occurred.” Ibid.;

App. in No. 05–5705, at 17, 32. Hershel made several

attempts to participate in Amy’s conversation with the

police, see id., at 32, but was rebuffed. The officer later

testified that Hershel “became angry when I insisted that

[he] stay separated from Mrs. Hammon so that we can

investigate what had happened.” Id., at 34. After hearing

Amy’s account, the officer “had her fill out and sign a

battery affidavit.” Id., at 18. Amy handwrote the follow

ing: “Broke our Furnace & shoved me down on the floor

into the broken glass. Hit me in the chest and threw me

down. Broke our lamps & phone. Tore up my van where I

couldn’t leave the house. Attacked my daughter.” Id., at

2.

The State charged Hershel with domestic battery and

with violating his probation. Amy was subpoenaed, but

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 5

Opinion of the Court

she did not appear at his subsequent bench trial. The

State called the officer who had questioned Amy, and

asked him to recount what Amy told him and to authenti

cate the affidavit. Hershel’s counsel repeatedly objected to

the admission of this evidence. See id., at 11, 12, 13, 17,

19, 20, 21. At one point, after hearing the prosecutor

defend the affidavit because it was made “under oath,”

defense counsel said, “That doesn’t give us the opportunity

to cross examine [the] person who allegedly drafted it.

Makes me mad.” Id., at 19. Nonetheless, the trial court

admitted the affidavit as a “present sense impression,” id.,

at 20, and Amy’s statements as “excited utterances” that

“are expressly permitted in these kinds of cases even if the

declarant is not available to testify.” Id., at 40. The officer

thus testified that Amy

“informed me that she and Hershel had been in an ar

gument. That he became irrate [sic] over the fact of

their daughter going to a boyfriend’s house. The ar

gument became . . . physical after being verbal and

she informed me that Mr. Hammon, during the verbal

part of the argument was breaking things in the living

room and I believe she stated he broke the phone,

broke the lamp, broke the front of the heater. When it

became physical he threw her down into the glass of

the heater.

. . . . .

“She informed me Mr. Hammon had pushed her

onto the ground, had shoved her head into the broken

glass of the heater and that he had punched her in the

chest twice I believe.” Id., at 17–18.

The trial judge found Hershel guilty on both charges, id.,

at 40, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed in rele

vant part, 809 N. E. 2d 945 (2004). The Indiana Supreme

Court also affirmed, concluding that Amy’s statement was

admissible for state-law purposes as an excited utterance,

6 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

829 N. E. 2d, at 449; that “a ‘testimonial’ statement is one

given or taken in significant part for purposes of preserv

ing it for potential future use in legal proceedings,” where

“the motivations of the questioner and declarant are the

central concerns,” id., at 456, 457; and that Amy’s oral

statement was not “testimonial” under these standards,

id., at 458. It also concluded that, although the affidavit

was testimonial and thus wrongly admitted, it was harm

less beyond a reasonable doubt, largely because the trial

was to the bench. Id., at 458–459. We granted certiorari.

546 U. S. ___ (2005).

II

The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment

provides: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall

enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses

against him.” In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36,

53–54 (2004), we held that this provision bars “admission

of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear

at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the de

fendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-

examination.” A critical portion of this holding, and the

portion central to resolution of the two cases now before

us, is the phrase “testimonial statements.” Only state

ments of this sort cause the declarant to be a “witness”

within the meaning of the Confrontation Clause. See id.,

at 51. It is the testimonial character of the statement that

separates it from other hearsay that, while subject to

traditional limitations upon hearsay evidence, is not sub

ject to the Confrontation Clause.

Our opinion in Crawford set forth “[v]arious formula

tions” of the core class of “ ‘testimonial’ ” statements, ibid.,

but found it unnecessary to endorse any of them, because

“some statements qualify under any definition,” id., at 52.

Among those, we said, were “[s]tatements taken by police

officers in the course of interrogations,” ibid.; see also id.,

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 7

Opinion of the Court

at 53. The questioning that generated the deponent’s

statement in Crawford—which was made and recorded

while she was in police custody, after having been given

Miranda warnings as a possible suspect herself—

“qualifies under any conceivable definition” of an “ ‘inter

rogation,’ ” 541 U. S., at 53, n. 4. We therefore did not

define that term, except to say that “[w]e use [it] . . . in its

colloquial, rather than any technical legal, sense,” and

that “one can imagine various definitions . . . , and we

need not select among them in this case.” Ibid. The char

acter of the statements in the present cases is not as clear,

and these cases require us to determine more precisely

which police interrogations produce testimony.

Without attempting to produce an exhaustive classifica

tion of all conceivable statements—or even all conceivable

statements in response to police interrogation—as either

testimonial or nontestimonial, it suffices to decide the

present cases to hold as follows: Statements are nontesti

monial when made in the course of police interrogation

under circumstances objectively indicating that the pri

mary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assis

tance to meet an ongoing emergency. They are testimo

nial when the circumstances objectively indicate that

there is no such ongoing emergency, and that the primary

purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past

events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.1

——————

1 Our holding refers to interrogations because, as explained below, the

statements in the cases presently before us are the products of interro

gations—which in some circumstances tend to generate testimonial

responses. This is not to imply, however, that statements made in the

absence of any interrogation are necessarily nontestimonial. The

Framers were no more willing to exempt from cross-examination

volunteered testimony or answers to open-ended questions than they

were to exempt answers to detailed interrogation. (Part of the evidence

against Sir Walter Raleigh was a letter from Lord Cobham that was

plainly not the result of sustained questioning. Raleigh’s Case, 2 How.

St. Tr. 1, 27 (1603).) And of course even when interrogation exists, it is

8 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

III

A

In Crawford, it sufficed for resolution of the case before

us to determine that “even if the Sixth Amendment is not

solely concerned with testimonial hearsay, that is its

primary object, and interrogations by law enforcement

officers fall squarely within that class.” Id., at 53. More

over, as we have just described, the facts of that case

spared us the need to define what we meant by “interroga

tions.” The Davis case today does not permit us this lux

ury of indecision. The inquiries of a police operator in the

course of a 911 call2 are an interrogation in one sense, but

not in a sense that “qualifies under any conceivable defini

tion.” We must decide, therefore, whether the Confronta

tion Clause applies only to testimonial hearsay; and, if so,

whether the recording of a 911 call qualifies.

The answer to the first question was suggested in Craw

ford, even if not explicitly held:

“The text of the Confrontation Clause reflects this

focus [on testimonial hearsay]. It applies to ‘wit

nesses’ against the accused—in other words, those

who ‘bear testimony.’ 1 N. Webster, An American Dic

tionary of the English Language (1828). ‘Testimony,’

in turn, is typically ‘a solemn declaration or affirma

tion made for the purpose of establishing or proving

some fact.’ Ibid. An accuser who makes a formal

——————

in the final analysis the declarant’s statements, not the interrogator’s

questions, that the Confrontation Clause requires us to evaluate.

2 If 911 operators are not themselves law enforcement officers, they

may at least be agents of law enforcement when they conduct interro

gations of 911 callers. For purposes of this opinion (and without

deciding the point), we consider their acts to be acts of the police. As in

Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36 (2004), therefore, our hold-

ing today makes it unnecessary to consider whether and when state

ments made to someone other than law enforcement personnel are

“testimonial.”

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 9

Opinion of the Court

statement to government officers bears testimony in a

sense that a person who makes a casual remark to an

acquaintance does not.” 541 U. S., at 51.

A limitation so clearly reflected in the text of the constitu

tional provision must fairly be said to mark out not merely

its “core,” but its perimeter.

We are not aware of any early American case invoking

the Confrontation Clause or the common-law right to

confrontation that did not clearly involve testimony as

thus defined.3 Well into the 20th century, our own Con

frontation Clause jurisprudence was carefully applied only

in the testimonial context. See, e.g., Reynolds v. United

States, 98 U. S. 145, 158 (1879) (testimony at prior trial was

subject to the Confrontation Clause, but petitioner had

forfeited that right by procuring witness’s absence); Mattox

——————

3 See, e.g., State v. Webb, 2 N. C. 103, 103–104 (Super. L. & Eq. 1794)

(per curiam) (excluding deposition taken in absence of the accused);

State v. Atkins, 1 Tenn. 229 (Super. L. & Eq. 1807) (per curiam) (ex

cluding prior testimony of deceased witness); Johnston v. State, 10

Tenn. 58, 59 (Err. & App. 1821) (admitting written deposition of de

ceased deponent, because defendant had the opportunity to cross-

examine); Finn v. Commonwealth, 26 Va. 701, 707–708 (1827) (exclud

ing prior testimony of a witness still alive, though outside the jurisdic

tion); State v. Hill, 20 S. C. L. 607 (App. 1835) (excluding deposition of

deceased victim taken in absence of the accused); Commonwealth v.

Richards, 35 Mass. 434, 436–439 (1837) (excluding preliminary exami

nation testimony of deceased witness because the witness’s precise

words were not available); Bostick v. State, 22 Tenn. 344 (1842) (admit

ting deposition of deceased where defendant declined opportunity to

cross-examine); People v. Newman, 5 Hill 295 (N. Y. Sup. Ct. 1843) (per

curiam) (excluding prior trial testimony of witness who was still alive);

State v. Campbell, 30 S. C. L. 124, 125 (App. L. 1844) (excluding deposi

tion taken in absence of the accused); State v. Valentine, 29 N. C. 225

(1847) (per curiam) (admitting preliminary examination testimony of

decedent where defendant had opportunity to cross-examine); Kendrick

v. State, 29 Tenn. 479, 491 (1850) (admitting testimony of deceased

witness at defendant’s prior trial); State v. Houser, 26 Mo. 431, 439–441

(1858) (excluding deposition of deponent who was still alive).

10 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

v. United States, 156 U. S. 237, 240–244 (1895) (prior trial

testimony of deceased witnesses admitted because subject to

cross-examination); Kirby v. United States, 174 U. S. 47, 55–

56 (1899) (guilty pleas and jury conviction of others could

not be admitted to show that property defendant received

from them was stolen); Motes v. United States, 178 U. S.

458, 467, 470–471 (1900) (written deposition subject to

cross-examination was not admissible because witness was

available); Dowdell v. United States, 221 U. S. 325, 330–331

(1911) (facts regarding conduct of prior trial certified to by

the judge, the clerk of court, and the official reporter did not

relate to defendants’ guilt or innocence and hence were not

statements of “witnesses” under the Confrontation Clause).

Even our later cases, conforming to the reasoning of

Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U. S. 56 (1980),4 never in practice

dispensed with the Confrontation Clause requirements of

unavailability and prior cross-examination in cases that

involved testimonial hearsay, see Crawford, 541 U. S., at

57–59 (citing cases), with one arguable exception, see id.,

at 58, n. 8 (discussing White v. Illinois, 502 U. S. 346

(1992)). Where our cases did dispense with those re

quirements—even under the Roberts approach—the

statements at issue were clearly nontestimonial. See, e.g.,

Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U. S. 171, 181–184 (1987)

(statements made unwittingly to a Government infor

mant); Dutton v. Evans, 400 U. S. 74, 87–89 (1970) (plural

ity opinion) (statements from one prisoner to another).

Most of the American cases applying the Confrontation

Clause or its state constitutional or common-law counter

parts involved testimonial statements of the most formal

——————

4 “Roberts condition[ed] the admissibility of all hearsay evidence on

whether it falls under a ‘firmly rooted hearsay exception’ or bears

‘particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.’ ” Crawford, 541 U. S.,

at 60 (quoting Roberts, 448 U. S., at 66). We overruled Roberts in

Crawford by restoring the unavailability and cross-examination

requirements.

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 11

Opinion of the Court

sort—sworn testimony in prior judicial proceedings or

formal depositions under oath—which invites the argu

ment that the scope of the Clause is limited to that very

formal category. But the English cases that were the

progenitors of the Confrontation Clause did not limit the

exclusionary rule to prior court testimony and formal

depositions, see Crawford, supra, at 52, and n. 3. In any

event, we do not think it conceivable that the protections

of the Confrontation Clause can readily be evaded by

having a note-taking policeman recite the unsworn hear

say testimony of the declarant, instead of having the

declarant sign a deposition. Indeed, if there is one point

for which no case—English or early American, state or

federal—can be cited, that is it.

The question before us in Davis, then, is whether, objec

tively considered, the interrogation that took place in the

course of the 911 call produced testimonial statements.

When we said in Crawford, supra, at 53, that “interroga

tions by law enforcement officers fall squarely within [the]

class” of testimonial hearsay, we had immediately in mind

(for that was the case before us) interrogations solely

directed at establishing the facts of a past crime, in order

to identify (or provide evidence to convict) the perpetrator.

The product of such interrogation, whether reduced to a

writing signed by the declarant or embedded in the mem

ory (and perhaps notes) of the interrogating officer, is

testimonial. It is, in the terms of the 1828 American

dictionary quoted in Crawford, “ ‘[a] solemn declaration or

affirmation made for the purpose of establishing or prov

ing some fact.’ ” 541 U. S., at 51. (The solemnity of even an

oral declaration of relevant past fact to an investigating

officer is well enough established by the severe conse

quences that can attend a deliberate falsehood. See, e.g.,

United States v. Stewart, 433 F. 3d 273, 288 (CA2 2006)

(false statements made to federal investigators violate 18

U. S. C. §1001); State v. Reed, 2005 WI 53, ¶30, 695 N. W.

12 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

2d 315, 323 (state criminal offense to “knowingly giv[e]

false information to [an] officer with [the] intent to mis

lead the officer in the performance of his or her duty”).) A

911 call, on the other hand, and at least the initial inter

rogation conducted in connection with a 911 call, is ordi

narily not designed primarily to “establis[h] or prov[e]”

some past fact, but to describe current circumstances

requiring police assistance.

The difference between the interrogation in Davis and

the one in Crawford is apparent on the face of things. In

Davis, McCottry was speaking about events as they were

actually happening, rather than “describ[ing] past events,”

Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U. S. 116, 137 (1999) (plurality opin

ion). Sylvia Crawford’s interrogation, on the other hand,

took place hours after the events she described had oc

curred. Moreover, any reasonable listener would recog

nize that McCottry (unlike Sylvia Crawford) was facing an

ongoing emergency. Although one might call 911 to pro

vide a narrative report of a crime absent any imminent

danger, McCottry’s call was plainly a call for help against

bona fide physical threat. Third, the nature of what was

asked and answered in Davis, again viewed objectively,

was such that the elicited statements were necessary to be

able to resolve the present emergency, rather than simply

to learn (as in Crawford) what had happened in the past.

That is true even of the operator’s effort to establish the

identity of the assailant, so that the dispatched officers

might know whether they would be encountering a violent

felon. See, e.g., Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial Dist. Court of

Nev., Humboldt Cty., 542 U. S. 177, 186 (2004). And

finally, the difference in the level of formality between the

two interviews is striking. Crawford was responding

calmly, at the station house, to a series of questions, with

the officer-interrogator taping and making notes of her

answers; McCottry’s frantic answers were provided over

the phone, in an environment that was not tranquil, or

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 13

Opinion of the Court

even (as far as any reasonable 911 operator could make

out) safe.

We conclude from all this that the circumstances of

McCottry’s interrogation objectively indicate its primary

purpose was to enable police assistance to meet an ongo

ing emergency. She simply was not acting as a witness;

she was not testifying. What she said was not “a weaker

substitute for live testimony” at trial, United States v.

Inadi, 475 U. S. 387, 394 (1986), like Lord Cobham’s

statements in Raleigh’s Case, 2 How. St. Tr. 1 (1603), or

Jane Dingler’s ex parte statements against her husband in

King v. Dingler, 2 Leach 561, 168 Eng. Rep. 383 (1791), or

Sylvia Crawford’s statement in Crawford. In each of those

cases, the ex parte actors and the evidentiary products of

the ex parte communication aligned perfectly with their

courtroom analogues. McCottry’s emergency statement

does not. No “witness” goes into court to proclaim an

emergency and seek help.

Davis seeks to cast McCottry in the unlikely role of a

witness by pointing to English cases. None of them in

volves statements made during an ongoing emergency. In

King v. Brasier, 1 Leach 199, 168 Eng. Rep. 202 (1779), for

example, a young rape victim, “immediately on her coming

home, told all the circumstances of the injury” to her

mother. Id., at 200, 168 Eng. Rep., at 202. The case

would be helpful to Davis if the relevant statement had

been the girl’s screams for aid as she was being chased by

her assailant. But by the time the victim got home, her

story was an account of past events.

This is not to say that a conversation which begins as an

interrogation to determine the need for emergency assis

tance cannot, as the Indiana Supreme Court put it, “evolve

into testimonial statements,” 829 N. E. 2d, at 457, once

that purpose has been achieved. In this case, for example,

after the operator gained the information needed to ad

dress the exigency of the moment, the emergency appears

14 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

to have ended (when Davis drove away from the prem

ises). The operator then told McCottry to be quiet, and

proceeded to pose a battery of questions. It could readily

be maintained that, from that point on, McCottry’s state

ments were testimonial, not unlike the “structured police

questioning” that occurred in Crawford, 541 U. S., at 53,

n. 4. This presents no great problem. Just as, for Fifth

Amendment purposes, “police officers can and will distin

guish almost instinctively between questions necessary to

secure their own safety or the safety of the public and

questions designed solely to elicit testimonial evidence

from a suspect,” New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 658–

659 (1984), trial courts will recognize the point at which,

for Sixth Amendment purposes, statements in response to

interrogations become testimonial. Through in limine

procedure, they should redact or exclude the portions of

any statement that have become testimonial, as they do,

for example, with unduly prejudicial portions of otherwise

admissible evidence. Davis’s jury did not hear the com

plete 911 call, although it may well have heard some tes

timonial portions. We were asked to classify only

McCottry’s early statements identifying Davis as her

assailant, and we agree with the Washington Supreme

Court that they were not testimonial. That court also

concluded that, even if later parts of the call were testi

monial, their admission was harmless beyond a reasonable

doubt. Davis does not challenge that holding, and we

therefore assume it to be correct.

B

Determining the testimonial or nontestimonial charac

ter of the statements that were the product of the interro

gation in Hammon is a much easier task, since they were

not much different from the statements we found to be

testimonial in Crawford. It is entirely clear from the

circumstances that the interrogation was part of an inves

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 15

Opinion of the Court

tigation into possibly criminal past conduct—as, indeed,

the testifying officer expressly acknowledged, App. in No.

05–5705, at 25, 32, 34. There was no emergency in pro

gress; the interrogating officer testified that he had heard

no arguments or crashing and saw no one throw or break

anything, id., at 25. When the officers first arrived, Amy

told them that things were fine, id., at 14, and there was

no immediate threat to her person. When the officer

questioned Amy for the second time, and elicited the

challenged statements, he was not seeking to determine

(as in Davis) “what is happening,” but rather “what hap

pened.” Objectively viewed, the primary, if not indeed the

sole, purpose of the interrogation was to investigate a

possible crime—which is, of course, precisely what the

officer should have done.

It is true that the Crawford interrogation was more

formal. It followed a Miranda warning, was tape-

recorded, and took place at the station house, see 541

U. S., at 53, n. 4. While these features certainly strength

ened the statements’ testimonial aspect—made it more

objectively apparent, that is, that the purpose of the exer

cise was to nail down the truth about past criminal

events—none was essential to the point. It was formal

enough that Amy’s interrogation was conducted in a sepa

rate room, away from her husband (who tried to inter

vene), with the officer receiving her replies for use in his

“investigat[ion].” App. in No. 05–5705, at 34. What we

called the “striking resemblance” of the Crawford state

ment to civil-law ex parte examinations, 541 U. S., at 52, is

shared by Amy’s statement here. Both declarants were

actively separated from the defendant—officers forcibly

prevented Hershel from participating in the interrogation.

Both statements deliberately recounted, in response to

police questioning, how potentially criminal past events

began and progressed. And both took place some time

after the events described were over. Such statements

16 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

under official interrogation are an obvious substitute for

live testimony, because they do precisely what a wit

ness does on direct examination; they are inherently

testimonial.5

Both Indiana and the United States as amicus curiae

——————

5 The dissent criticizes our test for being “neither workable nor a

targeted attempt to reach the abuses forbidden by the [Confrontation]

Clause,” post, at 9 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). As to the former: We have

acknowledged that our holding is not an “exhaustive classification of all

conceivable statements—or even all conceivable statements in response

to police interrogation,” supra, at 7, but rather a resolution of the cases

before us and those like them. For those cases, the test is objective and

quite “workable.” The dissent, in attempting to formulate an exhaus

tive classification of its own, has not provided anything that deserves

the description “workable”—unless one thinks that the distinction

between “formal” and “informal” statements, see post, at 4–5, qualifies.

And the dissent even qualifies that vague distinction by acknowledging

that the Confrontation Clause “also reaches the use of technically

informal statements when used to evade the formalized process,” post,

at 5, and cautioning that the Clause would stop the State from “us[ing]

out-of-court statements as a means of circumventing the literal right of

confrontation,” post, at 6. It is hard to see this as much more “predict

able,” ibid., than the rule we adopt for the narrow situations we ad

dress. (Indeed, under the dissent’s approach it is eminently arguable

that the dissent should agree, rather than disagree, with our disposi

tion in Hammon v. Indiana, No. 05–5705.)

As for the charge that our holding is not a “targeted attempt to reach

the abuses forbidden by the [Confrontation] Clause,” which the dissent

describes as the depositions taken by Marian magistrates, character

ized by a high degree of formality, see post, at 2–3: We do not dispute

that formality is indeed essential to testimonial utterance. But we no

longer have examining Marian magistrates; and we do have, as our

18th-century forebears did not, examining police officers, see L. Fried

man, Crime and Punishment in American History 67–68 (1993)—who

perform investigative and testimonial functions once performed by

examining Marian magistrates, see J. Langbein, The Origins of Adver

sary Criminal Trial 41 (2003). It imports sufficient formality, in our

view, that lies to such officers are criminal offenses. Restricting the

Confrontation Clause to the precise forms against which it was origi

nally directed is a recipe for its extinction. Cf. Kyllo v. United States,

533 U. S. 27 (2001).

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 17

Opinion of the Court

argue that this case should be resolved much like Davis.

For the reasons we find the comparison to Crawford com

pelling, we find the comparison to Davis unpersuasive.

The statements in Davis were taken when McCottry was

alone, not only unprotected by police (as Amy Hammon

was protected), but apparently in immediate danger from

Davis. She was seeking aid, not telling a story about the

past. McCottry’s present-tense statements showed imme

diacy; Amy’s narrative of past events was delivered at

some remove in time from the danger she described. And

after Amy answered the officer’s questions, he had her

execute an affidavit, in order, he testified, “[t]o establish

events that have occurred previously.” App. in No. 05–

5705, at 18.

Although we necessarily reject the Indiana Supreme

Court’s implication that virtually any “initial inquiries” at

the crime scene will not be testimonial, see 829 N. E. 2d,

at 453, 457, we do not hold the opposite—that no ques

tions at the scene will yield nontestimonial answers. We

have already observed of domestic disputes that “[o]fficers

called to investigate . . . need to know whom they are

dealing with in order to assess the situation, the threat to

their own safety, and possible danger to the potential

victim.” Hiibel, 542 U. S., at 186. Such exigencies may

often mean that “initial inquiries” produce nontestimonial

statements. But in cases like this one, where Amy’s state

ments were neither a cry for help nor the provision of

information enabling officers immediately to end a threat

ening situation, the fact that they were given at an alleged

crime scene and were “initial inquiries” is immaterial. Cf.

Crawford, supra, at 52, n. 3.6

——————

6 Police investigations themselves are, of course, in no way impugned

by our characterization of their fruits as testimonial. Investigations of

past crimes prevent future harms and lead to necessary arrests. While

prosecutors may hope that inculpatory “nontestimonial” evidence is

gathered, this is essentially beyond police control. Their saying that an

18 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of the Court

IV

Respondents in both cases, joined by a number of their

amici, contend that the nature of the offenses charged in

these two cases—domestic violence—requires greater

flexibility in the use of testimonial evidence. This particu

lar type of crime is notoriously susceptible to intimidation

or coercion of the victim to ensure that she does not testify

at trial. When this occurs, the Confrontation Clause gives

the criminal a windfall. We may not, however, vitiate

constitutional guarantees when they have the effect of

allowing the guilty to go free. Cf. Kyllo v. United States,

533 U. S. 27 (2001) (suppressing evidence from an illegal

search). But when defendants seek to undermine the

judicial process by procuring or coercing silence from

witnesses and victims, the Sixth Amendment does not

require courts to acquiesce. While defendants have no

duty to assist the State in proving their guilt, they do have

the duty to refrain from acting in ways that destroy the

integrity of the criminal-trial system. We reiterate what

we said in Crawford: that “the rule of forfeiture by wrong

doing . . . extinguishes confrontation claims on essentially

equitable grounds.” 541 U. S., at 62 (citing Reynolds, 98

U. S., at 158–159). That is, one who obtains the absence of

a witness by wrongdoing forfeits the constitutional right to

confrontation.

We take no position on the standards necessary to dem

onstrate such forfeiture, but federal courts using Federal

Rule of Evidence 804(b)(6), which codifies the forfeiture

doctrine, have generally held the Government to the pre

ponderance-of-the-evidence standard, see, e.g., United

——————

emergency exists cannot make it be so. The Confrontation Clause in no

way governs police conduct, because it is the trial use of, not the inves

tigatory collection of, ex parte testimonial statements which offends

that provision. But neither can police conduct govern the Confronta

tion Clause; testimonial statements are what they are.

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 19

Opinion of the Court

States v. Scott, 284 F. 3d 758, 762 (CA7 2002). State

courts tend to follow the same practice, see, e.g., Com

monwealth v. Edwards, 444 Mass. 526, 542, 830 N. E. 2d

158, 172 (2005). Moreover, if a hearing on forfeiture is

required, Edwards, for instance, observed that “hearsay

evidence, including the unavailable witness’s out-of-court

statements, may be considered.” Id., at 545, 830 N. E. 2d,

at 174. The Roberts approach to the Confrontation Clause

undoubtedly made recourse to this doctrine less necessary,

because prosecutors could show the “reliability” of ex parte

statements more easily than they could show the defen

dant’s procurement of the witness’s absence. Crawford, in

overruling Roberts, did not destroy the ability of courts to

protect the integrity of their proceedings.

We have determined that, absent a finding of forfeiture

by wrongdoing, the Sixth Amendment operates to exclude

Amy Hammon’s affidavit. The Indiana courts may (if they

are asked) determine on remand whether such a claim of

forfeiture is properly raised and, if so, whether it is meri

torious.

* * *

We affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court of Wash

ington in No. 05–5224. We reverse the judgment of the

Supreme Court of Indiana in No. 05–5705, and remand

the case to that Court for proceedings not inconsistent

with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 1

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

Nos. 05–5224 and 05–5705

_________________

ADRIAN MARTELL DAVIS, PETITIONER

05–5224 v.

WASHINGTON

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF

WASHINGTON

HERSHEL HAMMON, PETITIONER

05–5705 v.

INDIANA

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF

INDIANA

[June 19, 2006]

JUSTICE THOMAS, concurring in the judgment in part

and dissenting in part.

In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36 (2004), we

abandoned the general reliability inquiry we had long

employed to judge the admissibility of hearsay evidence

under the Confrontation Clause, describing that inquiry as

“inherently, and therefore permanently, unpredictable.”

Id., at 68, n. 10 (emphasis in original). Today, a mere two

years after the Court decided Crawford, it adopts an

equally unpredictable test, under which district courts are

charged with divining the “primary purpose” of police

interrogations. Ante, at 7. Besides being difficult for

courts to apply, this test characterizes as “testimonial,”

and therefore inadmissible, evidence that bears little

resemblance to what we have recognized as the evidence

targeted by the Confrontation Clause. Because neither of

the cases before the Court today would implicate the

2 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

Confrontation Clause under an appropriately targeted

standard, I concur only in the judgment in Davis v. Wash

ington, No. 05–5224, and dissent from the Court’s resolu

tion of Hammon v. Indiana, No. 05–5705.

I

A

The Confrontation Clause provides that “[i]n all crimi

nal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to

be confronted with the witnesses against him . . . .” U. S.

Const., Amdt. 6. We have recognized that the operative

phrase in the Clause, “witnesses against him,” could be

interpreted narrowly, to reach only those witnesses who

actually testify at trial, or more broadly, to reach many or

all of those whose out-of-court statements are offered at

trial. Crawford, supra, at 42–43; White v. Illinois, 502

U. S. 346, 359–363 (1992) (THOMAS, J., concurring in part

and concurring in judgment). Because the narrowest

interpretation of the Clause would conflict with both the

history giving rise to the adoption of the Clause and this

Court’s precedent, we have rejected such a reading. See

Crawford, supra, at 50–51; White, supra, at 360 (opinion of

THOMAS, J.).

Rejection of the narrowest view of the Clause does not,

however, require the broadest application of the Clause to

exclude otherwise admissible hearsay evidence. The

history surrounding the right to confrontation supports

the conclusion that it was developed to target particular

practices that occurred under the English bail and com

mittal statutes passed during the reign of Queen Mary,

namely, the “civil-law mode of criminal procedure, and

particularly its use of ex parte examinations as evidence

against the accused.” Crawford, supra, at 43, 50; White,

supra, at 361–362 (opinion of THOMAS, J.); Mattox v.

United States, 156 U. S. 237, 242 (1895). “The predomi

nant purpose of the [Marian committal] statute was to

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

institute systematic questioning of the accused and the

witnesses.” J. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Ren

aissance 23 (1974) (emphasis added). The statute re

quired an oral examination of the suspect and the accus

ers, transcription within two days of the examinations,

and physical transmission to the judges hearing the case.

Id., at 10, 23. These examinations came to be used as

evidence in some cases, in lieu of a personal appearance by

the witness. Crawford, supra, at 43–44; 9 W. Holdsworth,

A History of English Law 223–229 (1926). Many state

ments that would be inadmissible as a matter of hearsay

law bear little resemblance to these evidentiary practices,

which the Framers proposed the Confrontation Clause to

prevent. See, e.g., Crawford, supra, at 51 (contrasting

“[a]n off-hand, overheard remark” with the abuses tar

geted by the Confrontation Clause). Accordingly, it is

unlikely that the Framers intended the word “witness” to

be read so broadly as to include such statements. Cf.

Dutton v. Evans, 400 U. S. 74, 94 (1970) (Harlan, J., con

curring in result) (rejecting the “assumption that the core

purpose of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amend

ment is to prevent overly broad exceptions to the hearsay

rule”).

In Crawford, we recognized that this history could be

squared with the language of the Clause, giving rise to a

workable, and more accurate, interpretation of the Clause.

“ ‘[W]itnesses,’ ” we said, are those who “ ‘bear testimony.’ ”

541 U. S., at 51 (quoting 1 N. Webster, An American Dic

tionary of the English Language (1828)). And “ ‘[t]esti

mony’ ” is “ ‘[a] solemn declaration or affirmation made for

the purpose of establishing or proving some fact.’ ” Ibid.

(quoting Webster, supra). Admittedly, we did not set forth

a detailed framework for addressing whether a statement

is “testimonial” and thus subject to the Confrontation

Clause. But the plain terms of the “testimony” definition

we endorsed necessarily require some degree of solemnity

4 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

before a statement can be deemed “testimonial.”

This requirement of solemnity supports my view that

the statements regulated by the Confrontation Clause

must include “extrajudicial statements . . . contained in

formalized testimonial materials, such as affidavits, depo

sitions, prior testimony, or confessions.” White, supra, at

365 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). Affidavits, depositions, and

prior testimony are, by their very nature, taken through a

formalized process. Likewise, confessions, when extracted

by police in a formal manner, carry sufficient indicia of

solemnity to constitute formalized statements and, accord

ingly, bear a “striking resemblance,” Crawford, supra, at

52, to the examinations of the accused and accusers under

the Marian statutes.1 See generally Langbein, supra, at

21–34.

Although the Court concedes that the early American

cases invoking the right to confrontation or the Confronta

tion Clause itself all “clearly involve[d] testimony” as

defined in Crawford, ante, at 9, it fails to acknowledge

that all of the cases it cites fall within the narrower cate

gory of formalized testimonial materials I have proposed.

See ante, at 9, n. 3.2 Interactions between the police and

——————

1 Like the Court, I presume the acts of the 911 operator to be the acts

of the police. Ante, at 8, n. 2. Accordingly, I refer to both the operator

in Davis and the officer in Hammon, and their counterparts in similar

cases, collectively as “the police.”

2 Our more recent cases, too, nearly all hold excludable under the

Confrontation Clause materials that are plainly highly formal. See

White v. Illinois, 502 U. S. 346, 365, n. 2 (1992) (THOMAS, J., concurring

in part and concurring in judgment). The only exceptions involve

confessions of codefendants to police, and those confessions appear to

have either been formal due to their occurrence in custody or to have

been formalized into signed documents. See Douglas v. Alabama, 380

U. S. 415, 416 (1965) (signed confession); Brookhart v. Janis, 384 U. S.

1 (1966) (signed confession taken after accomplice’s arrest, see Brief for

Petitioner in Brookhart v. Janis, O. T. 1965, No. 657, pp. 10–11);

Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S. 123, 124 (1968) (custodial interroga

tion); Roberts v. Russell, 392 U. S. 293 (1968) (per curiam) (custodial

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 5

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

an accused (or witnesses) resemble Marian proceedings—

and these early cases—only when the interactions are

somehow rendered “formal.” In Crawford, for example,

the interrogation was custodial, taken after warnings

given pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436

(1966). 541 U. S., at 38. Miranda warnings, by their

terms, inform a prospective defendant that “ ‘anything he

says can be used against him in a court of law.’ ”

Dickerson v. United States, 530 U. S. 428, 435 (2000)

(quoting Miranda, supra, at 479). This imports a solem

nity to the process that is not present in a mere conversa

tion between a witness or suspect and a police officer.3

The Court all but concedes that no case can be cited for

its conclusion that the Confrontation Clause also applies

to informal police questioning under certain circum

stances. Ante, at 9–11. Instead, the sole basis for the

Court’s conclusion is its apprehension that the Confronta

tion Clause will “readily be evaded” if it is only applicable

to formalized testimonial materials. Ante, at 11. But the

Court’s proposed solution to the risk of evasion is need

lessly overinclusive. Because the Confrontation Clause

sought to regulate prosecutorial abuse occurring through

use of ex parte statements as evidence against the accused,

it also reaches the use of technically informal statements

when used to evade the formalized process. Cf. ibid. That

is, even if the interrogation itself is not formal, the produc

tion of evidence by the prosecution at trial would resemble

the abuses targeted by the Confrontation Clause if the

——————

interrogation following a warning that the co-defendant’s statement

could be used against her at trial, see Brief in Opposition, O. T. 1967,

No. 920, pp. 5–6).

3 The possibility that an oral declaration of past fact to a police officer,

if false, could result in legal consequences to the speaker, see ante, at

11–12, may render honesty in casual conversations with police officers

important. It does not, however, render those conversations solemn or

formal in the ordinary meanings of those terms.

6 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

prosecution attempted to use out-of-court statements as a

means of circumventing the literal right of confrontation,

see Coy v. Iowa, 487 U. S. 1012 (1988). In such a case, the

Confrontation Clause could fairly be applied to exclude the

hearsay statements offered by the prosecution, preventing

evasion without simultaneously excluding evidence offered

by the prosecution in good faith.

The Court’s standard is not only disconnected from

history and unnecessary to prevent abuse; it also yields no

predictable results to police officers and prosecutors at

tempting to comply with the law. Cf. Crawford, supra, at

68, n. 10 (criticizing unpredictability of the pre-Crawford

test); White, 502 U. S., at 364–365 (THOMAS, J., concurring

in part and concurring in judgment) (limiting the Confron

tation Clause to the discrete category of materials histori

cally abused would “greatly simplify” application of the

Clause). In many, if not most, cases where police respond

to a report of a crime, whether pursuant to a 911 call from

the victim or otherwise, the purposes of an interrogation,

viewed from the perspective of the police, are both to

respond to the emergency situation and to gather evi

dence. See New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 656 (1984)

(“Undoubtedly most police officers [deciding whether to

give Miranda warnings in a possible emergency situation]

would act out of a host of different, instinctive, and largely

unverifiable motives—their own safety, the safety of oth

ers, and perhaps as well the desire to obtain incriminating

evidence from the suspect”). Assigning one of these two

“largely unverifiable motives,” ibid., primacy requires

constructing a hierarchy of purpose that will rarely be

present—and is not reliably discernible. It will inevitably

be, quite simply, an exercise in fiction.

The Court’s repeated invocation of the word “objec

tiv[e]” to describe its test, see ante, at 7, 11–13, 15, how

ever, suggests that the Court may not mean to reference

purpose at all, but instead to inquire into the function

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 7

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

served by the interrogation. Certainly such a test would

avoid the pitfalls that have led us repeatedly to reject

tests dependent on the subjective intentions of police

officers.4 It would do so, however, at the cost of being

even more disconnected from the prosecutorial abuses

targeted by the Confrontation Clause. Additionally, it

would shift the ability to control whether a violation

occurred from the police and prosecutor to the judge,

whose determination as to the “primary purpose” of a

particular interrogation would be unpredictable and not

necessarily tethered to the actual purpose for which the

police performed the interrogation.

B

Neither the 911 call at issue in Davis nor the police

questioning at issue in Hammon is testimonial under the

appropriate framework. Neither the call nor the question

ing is itself a formalized dialogue.5 Nor do any circum

stances surrounding the taking of the statements render

those statements sufficiently formal to resemble the

Marian examinations; the statements were neither

Mirandized nor custodial, nor accompanied by any similar

indicia of formality. Finally, there is no suggestion that

the prosecution attempted to offer the women’s hearsay

——————

4 See New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 655–656, and n. 6 (1984)

(subjective motivation of officer not relevant in considering whether the

public safety exception to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), is

applicable); Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U. S. 291, 301 (1980) (subjective

intent of police officer to obtain incriminatory statement not relevant to

whether an interrogation has occurred); Whren v. United States, 517

U. S. 806, 813 (1996) (refusing to evaluate Fourth Amendment reason

ableness in light of the officers’ actual motivations).

5 Although the police questioning in Hammon was ultimately reduced

to an affidavit, all agree that the affidavit is inadmissible per se under

our definition of the term “testimonial.” Brief for Respondent in No.

05–5705, p. 46; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in No. 05–

5705, p. 14.

8 DAVIS v. WASHINGTON

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

evidence at trial in order to evade confrontation. See 829

N. E. 2d 444, 447 (Ind. 2005) (prosecution subpoenaed

Amy Hammon to testify, but she was not present); 154

Wash. 2d 291, 296, 111 P. 3d 844, 847 (2005) (en banc)

(State was unable to locate Michelle McCottry at the time

of trial). Accordingly, the statements at issue in both

cases are nontestimonial and admissible under the Con

frontation Clause.

The Court’s determination that the evidence against

Hammon must be excluded extends the Confrontation

Clause far beyond the abuses it was intended to prevent.

When combined with the Court’s holding that the evidence

against Davis is perfectly admissible, however, the Court’s

Hammon holding also reveals the difficulty of applying the

Court’s requirement that courts investigate the “primary

purpose[s]” of the investigation. The Court draws a line

between the two cases based on its explanation that

Hammon involves “no emergency in progress,” but in

stead, mere questioning as “part of an investigation into

possibly criminal past conduct,” ante, at 14–15, and its

explanation that Davis involves questioning for the “pri

mary purpose” of “enabl[ing] police assistance to meet an

ongoing emergency,” ante, at 13. But the fact that the

officer in Hammon was investigating Mr. Hammon’s past

conduct does not foreclose the possibility that the primary

purpose of his inquiry was to assess whether Mr. Hammon

constituted a continuing danger to his wife, requiring

further police presence or action. It is hardly remarkable

that Hammon did not act abusively towards his wife in the

presence of the officers, ante, at 15, and his good judgment

to refrain from criminal behavior in the presence of police

sheds little, if any, light on whether his violence would

have resumed had the police left without further question

ing, transforming what the Court dismisses as “past con

Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 9

Opinion of THOMAS, J.

duct” back into an “ongoing emergency.” Ante, at 13, 15.6

Nor does the mere fact that McCottry needed emergency

aid shed light on whether the “primary purpose” of gather

ing, for example, the name of her assailant was to protect

the police, to protect the victim, or to gather information

for prosecution. In both of the cases before the Court, like

many similar cases, pronouncement of the “primary”

motive behind the interrogation calls for nothing more

than a guess by courts.

II

Because the standard adopted by the Court today is

neither workable nor a targeted attempt to reach the

abuses forbidden by the Clause, I concur only in the judg

ment in Davis v. Washington, No. 05–5224, and respect

fully dissent from the Court’s resolution of Hammon v.

Indiana, No. 05–5705.

——————

6 Some of the factors on which the Court relies to determine that the

police questioning in Hammon was testimonial apply equally in Davis.

For example, while Hammon was “actively separated from the [victim]”

and thereby “prevented . . . from participating in the interrogation,”

Davis was apart from McCottry while she was questioned by the 911

operator and thus unable to participate in the questioning. Ante, at 2,

15. Similarly, “the events described [by McCottry] were over” by the

time she recounted them to the 911 operator. Ibid. See 154 Wash. 2d

291, 295–296, 111 P. 3d 844, 846–847 (2005) (en banc).