The Supreme Court has overturned the murder conviction of Darrell Hemphill, a New York man, on Sixth Amendment grounds after state prosecutors cut corners and used the transcript of a witness’s testimony from another trial against him instead of having the witness testify in person. The new ruling strengthens the right of criminal defendants to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. The relevant language in the Sixth Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1791, states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” The vote in the high court’s ruling (pdf) in Hemphill v. New York, court file 20-637, was 8–1, reversing a decision of the New York Court of Appeals. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter. The case goes back to Easter on April 16, 2006, when a stray 9-millimeter bullet cut short the life of a 2-year-old boy …