Gary Paul Kirkman v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division

Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in denying Gary Paul Kirkman’s request for a certificate of appealability (COA) when it concluded that he had not made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2), despite his argument that the introduction of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) records at his trial violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment? Whether the admission of the SANE records, including the amendments made to them after the doctor’s review, without the opportunity for crossexamination of the SANE or the doctor, violated Gary Paul Kirkman’s rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, as established by the Supreme Court’s precedents in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305 (2009), and Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 564 U.S. 647 (2011)?