Cold case murder trial. Offense occurred in 1996. One vital investigating officer has since been killed in line of duty. Before the officer was killed, the victim's family filed suit against defendant to prevent his receipt of life insurance proceeds. Defendant was given notice of time and place of officer's deposition, but did not appear. No problem with first Crawford test, our witness is certainly not available. Research has not revealed a similar case so as to let me know whether notice of the deposition in the civil suit is sufficient opportunity to cross examine so as to satisfy Crawford. Anyone else dealt with this? Any ideas?

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Nope. Won't work as defendant's criminal attorney did not have the ability to cross-examine the witness. While he might have had a civil attorney way back then, it does not matter. There was no criminal charge pending back then, defense would argue, so there would have been no reason to cross-examine like you would for a murder case.

RTC,
Interesting idea, but since it was a suit to keep him from getting the insurance proceeds, the issue of death causation was central. It's academic now anyway, because, contrary to my first notion, it's not really a Crawford question. If you want details, email me.