Our state supreme court issued a new confrontation clause case that concludes the Washington constitutional protections are the same as the federal constitution-so we should follow federal analysis on the issue.  In applying the federal cases, the court concluded that expert witnesses could rely upon the data collected and work done by technicians and analysts on the case without requiring each one to appear for trial.   The opinion should help clarify that any breath test technician can appear to testify at trial without violating confrontation rights.  Likewise, the opinion may give the Toxicology lab some relief regarding who needs to appear in drug cases where multiple drugs are found. 

The full case may be found here: State v Liu.pdf