Hunter v. United States · ¶131

In Mezzanatto, 513 U. S. 196, a defendant sought to be excused from his waiver of certain evidentiary protections. The District Court held him to his waiver. The defendant was convicted, and on appeal, this Court upheld the conviction and the enforcement of the waiver. Id., at 199, 210–211. Mezzanatto's holding, then, provides no support for the Court's exception that it creates today. In fact, Mezzanat to's reasoning emphasized that “we have presumed that statutory provisions are subject to waiver,” and that waivers of evidentiary protections are “ `liberally enforced.' ” Id., at 201, 202. So, the Court today must turn to a single paragraph of dicta in Mezzanatto, which suggested that “[t]here may be some evidentiary provisions that are so fundamental to the reliability of the factfnding process that they may never be waived,” before concluding that no such provision was implicated.…

preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.