Cross v. Hardy

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant's habeas petition challenging his sexual assault conviction on ground that trial court erroneously admitted at defendant's second trial transcript of alleged victim's testimony from first trial after trial court had found that said witness was unavailable in light of prosecutor's unsuccessful attempts at locating her. While prosecutor made minimal efforts to locate witness by contacting her parents and ex-boyfriend, prosecutor did not follow up on other leads and failed to subpoena said witness under circumstances where prosecutor knew that said witness had expressed reluctance to testify.