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Page Number: 4.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 20–637 
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DARRELL HEMPHILL, PETITIONER v. NEW YORK 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS 
OF NEW YORK 

[January 20, 2022]

 JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. 
In  2006,  a  stray  9-millimeter  bullet  killed  a  2-year-old
child in the Bronx.  The State charged Nicholas Morris with
the murder, but after trial commenced, it offered him a plea
deal  for  a  lesser  charge.    The  State  specifically  required 
Morris to admit to a new charge of possession of a .357-mag-
num  revolver,  not  the  9-millimeter  handgun  originally 
charged in the indictment and used in the killing.  

Years  later,  the  State  prosecuted  petitioner  Darrell
Hemphill  for  the  same  murder.  At  his  trial,  Hemphill
blamed Morris, and he elicited undisputed testimony from 
a prosecution witness that police had recovered 9-millime-
ter ammunition from Morris’ nightstand.  Morris was out-
side the United States and not available to testify.  The trial 
court allowed the State to introduce parts of the transcript
of  Morris’  plea  allocution  as  evidence  to  rebut  Hemphill’s 
theory that Morris committed the murder.  The court rea-
soned  that  Hemphill’s  arguments  and  evidence  had
“open[ed] the door” to the introduction of these testimonial 
out-of-court  statements,  not  subjected  to  cross-examina-
tion,  because  they  were  “ ‘reasonably  necessary’ ”  to  “ ‘cor-
rect’ ” the “ ‘misleading impression’ ” Hemphill had created.