Mississippi Case Challenges Death Certificate As Evidence in Accident

Prosecutors have asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction of Jeffrey Dale Beecham, who won a new trial because the state failed to offer testimony to authenticate a death certificate in a fatal DUI case.

Special Assistant Attorney General Billy Gore told the court that a death certificate was used at Beecham’s trial to provide the cause of death and other facts and did not require testimony from an expert to validate. But the state Court of Appeals last year ordered a new trial on grounds that Beecham’s attorney was not allowed to question the doctor who prepared Freda Lovelace’s death certificate. Beecham claimed and the Appeals Court agreed that it was a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accusers.

The Court of Appeals ruled the death certificate was tantamount to testimony in that it concluded that Lovelace died from “complications of blunt-force injuries to head and chest sustained in an automobile accident.” John Watson, representing Beecham, said the death certificate allowed the prosecution to admit facts of the case into evidence without testimony to support it.