The State sought to introduce certified convictions of alleged gang members to prove the existence of a criminal street gang and criminal gang activity in the prosecution of Brenton Jefferson and four other defendants. The defendants argued that OCGA section 16-15-9 was unconstitutional because it allowed convictions of non-testifying third parties to establish an element of their offenses. The Supreme Court of Georgia held that the statute was unconstitutional on its face to the extent it authorized that use. Under the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, a conviction based on testimony and evidence from another criminal proceeding is testimonial when offered against a different defendant to prove facts underlying the charged crime. The State could not avoid that constitutional problem by introducing the convictions through a gang expert, because the expert would not substitute for cross-examination of the witnesses and participants in the earlier cases. The court affirmed the trial court’s ruling excluding the third-party convictions.