Opinion ID: 760895
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission of Statements under Constitutional Principles

Text: 61 Hall also alleges that he had a constitutional right to introduce the statements of O'Toole and Goble as a matter of due process under Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), and Green v. Georgia, 442 U.S. 95, 99 S.Ct. 2150, 60 L.Ed.2d 738 (1979), because these statements would be considered sufficiently reliable for the government to use against the declarants in a criminal prosecution. Concluding that the statements were unreliable and that the government would not use such unreliable evidence to prosecute the declarants, the district court rejected Hall's argument that he had a constitutional right to introduce the statements. We agree with the district court. 62 In Chambers, the hearsay declarant gave a sworn statement to the defendant's attorneys confessing to the crime to which the defendant was charged and also admitted responsibility for that crime three other times in private conversations with friends. 410 U.S. at 287-88, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Reasoning that the hearsay rule may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice, id. at 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038, the Supreme Court held that the trial court's exclusion of this third party's confessions on hearsay grounds violated the defendant's due process rights where circumstances revealed the confessions to be reliable. Id. In reaching this conclusion, the Supreme Court reasoned that the statements were made under circumstances which provided considerable assurance of their reliability. Id. at 300, 93 S.Ct. 1038. These circumstances included: (1) each statement was made spontaneously to a close acquaintance shortly after the murder had occurred; (2) each statement was corroborated by some other evidence in the case whether it was the declarant's sworn confession, eyewitness testimony or evidence linking the declarant to the murder weapon; (3) each statement was against the declarant's interest; and (4) the declarant was available to be cross-examined under oath about his out-of-court statements. Id. at 300-01, 93 S.Ct. 1038. 63 Similarly, in Green, the defendant sought to admit the testimony of a third party who had testified for the government at the co-defendant's trial. 442 U.S. at 96, 99 S.Ct. 2150. The third party testified that the co-defendant admitted that he had committed the murder for which the defendant was being charged and that the defendant was not present. Id. The Supreme Court found several reasons existed to assume the hearsay testimony's reliability, including: (1) the declarant made the statement spontaneously to a close friend; (2) there was ample evidence corroborating the confession; (3) the statement was against interest; (4) and the government considered the testimony sufficiently reliable to use it against the co-defendant. Id. at 97, 99 S.Ct. 2150. Based on these circumstances, the Supreme Court found the hearsay statement reliable and held that the exclusion of reliable hearsay testimony of a co-defendant offered to exculpate the defendant violated the defendant's due process rights. Id. 64 We have since recognized Chambers and Green to stand for the proposition that states must allow defendants to put reliable third-party confessions before the jury, despite the hearsay rule, when necessary to assist in separating the guilty from the innocent. Carson v. Peters, 42 F.3d 384, 385 (7th Cir.1994) (emphasis added); see also Lee v. McCaughtry, 933 F.2d 536, 538 (7th Cir.1991) (Chambers did not do away with the hearsay rule. The Supreme Court contemplated that the judge would be a gatekeeper, that unreliable statements could be excluded.). As we have previously indicated, [w]e have understood Chambers and Green as establishing the rule that 'if the defendant tenders vital evidence the judge cannot refuse to admit it without giving a better reason that it is hearsay.'  Carson, 42 F.3d at 387 (quoting Rivera v. Director, 915 F.2d 280, 281-82 (7th Cir.1990)). However, if the district court does give a 'better reason,' then Chambers and Green have served their purpose. Id. A better reason was given in this case--the statements were unreliable. 65 Unlike the statements in Chambers and Green, the hearsay statements involved in this case were not made under circumstances that provided considerable assurance of their reliability. As we examined in detail in Parts II.B and II.C above, there was insufficient evidence corroborating these statements. In addition, Goble's and O'Toole's statements were neither sworn nor used against either declarant in a criminal proceeding. 66 Relying on our decision in Rivera v. Director, 915 F.2d 280 (7th Cir.1990), Hall nevertheless argues that Goble's confession and O'Toole's statements should have been admitted under Chambers because they are the sort of statements that prosecutors regularly use against defendants. We disagree. In Rivera, the defendant sought to introduce the confession of his co-defendant, a confession which was placed into evidence against the co-defendant at his separate trial and which contributed to the co-defendant's ultimate conviction. Rivera, 915 F.2d at 281. In that confession, the co-defendant stated that he alone committed the crime. Id. The trial court excluded the confession from the defendant's trial on the basis that under applicable state law the availability of the out-of-court declarant for cross-examination is necessary for the admission of hearsay evidence. Id. Perhaps recognizing the vulnerability of the state's ruling on constitutional grounds, during oral argument in Rivera, the government provided a different reason for excluding the confession--that it was unreliable. Id. at 282. As a factor in determining the reliability of the co-defendant's confession in a trial against the defendant, we reasoned that, if the confession was reliable enough to be used to put [the co-defendant] away for the rest of his life, it should be reliable evidence of [the defendant's] innocence as well. Id. Because the government offered no plausible reason for believing that the exculpatory portion of the confession was unreliable, and because Chambers dictates that a statement may not be excluded merely by classifying it as hearsay, we reversed and granted the defendant a new trial. Id. at 281-83. 67 Contrary to Hall's assertions, Rivera does not stand for the proposition that any statement that could be used by a prosecutor against the declarant is sufficiently reliable to justify admission under Chambers. Rather, Rivera merely recognizes that where the government does in fact introduce a statement at trial and uses it to secure a conviction against the declarant, a court should not later preclude a co-defendant from offering that statement in his trial merely on the basis that the statement is hearsay. Since neither O'Toole nor Goble were even charged in this case, Rivera does not undermine the district court's conclusion that the hearsay statements were unreliable and, therefore, inadmissable. 68 In sum, we conclude that Hall's constitutional due process rights were not violated by the district court's decision not to admit the hearsay statements. 69