| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | After intense questioning, Crane starts confessing to all manner of crimes, including a murder at a liquor store. The court determines that the confession was voluntary, and should therefore not be excluded. Moreover, the defense's attempt to introduce evidence undermining the credibility of the confession is suppressed, because the confession was judicially determined to be voluntary. |
| Posture: | Appeal (including a record of evidence that would have been introduced) after conviction. Conviction and sentence affirmed on appeal. |
| Issue: | Did the exclusion of this evidence violate the defendant's 6A and 14A rights? |
| Holding: | Yes; remanded for new trial. |
| Rule: | The consitution guarantees the meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense. This means adversarial testing of the evidence. Questions of credibility are for the jury. |
| Reasoning: | An essential component of procedural fairness is the opportunity to be heard. Questions about how a confession was obtained will often influence its probative weight. |
| Dicta: | The prosecutor's case must encounter and survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing. |