It actually goes all the way back to common law and the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was later enshrined in the Sixth Amendment. During the trial of Sir Ra

It actually goes all the way back to common law and the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was later enshrined in the Sixth Amendment. During the trial of Sir Raleigh, the prosecution moved affidavits for its witnesses into evidence, without giving the accused the right to cross-examine those that had made the affidavits. Raleigh, conducting his own defense, objected on the grounds of hearsay. He was overruled, since the prosecution anticipating this attack brought the prosecution under Norman civil law, which allows for hearsay. It was a large scandal at the time, an emblem of the state exerting arbitrary power. It marked legal thinking for generations, eventually leading to the American Sixth Amendment.