Opinion ID: 751343
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission of co-defendant's guilty plea.

Text: 21 Tse urges that the guilty plea of co-conspirator Kwok-Wah Chan was introduced improperly as substantive evidence of his guilt. One of Tse's defense strategies suggested that the crimes committed were ordinary street crimes punishable by state law rather than violent crimes in aid of a racketeering enterprise. Tse contends that by introducing Chan's guilty plea to the aiding racketeering charge and giving the jury a Pinkerton instruction the government used Chan's plea improperly, i.e., because Chan pleaded guilty to the charge he admitted that his motive was furthering the enterprise, and under Pinkerton Chan's motive could be attributed to Tse and considered as evidence of Tse's guilt. Several factors work to counteract Tse's assertions on this issue. 22 First, Tse did not object to the introduction of Chan's plea. To reverse on this issue we must find plain error. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). Second, Chan's guilty plea was properly elicited on direct examination to counteract the anticipated attack on Chan's credibility by Tse. Tse's strategy included attacking the credibility of each government witness. The prosecution preempted Tse by having each witness admit past criminal behavior and any plea agreements that could have motivated the witness to testify. A co-conspirator's guilty plea is properly elicited to dampen the effect of an anticipated attack on the witness's credibility. U.S. v. Dworken, 855 F.2d 12, 30 (1st Cir.1988). Furthermore, on cross-examination Tse attempted to show that Chan had been coerced into pleading guilty. On redirect the government extracted further detail about the specific crimes Chan had pled to and asked him to verify that he had committed them. Therefore, this testimony damaging to Tse came in response to his cross-examination attacking the integrity of Chan's plea. See U.S. v. Kroh, 915 F.2d 326, 332 (8th Cir.1990) (use of redirect to elicit plea is proper to combat suggestions made by defense in cross-examination); U.S. v. Braidlow, 806 F.2d 781, 783 (8th Cir.1986) (The trial court does not abuse its discretion by allowing the use of evidence on redirect examination to clarify an issue that was opened up by the defense on cross-examination--even when this evidence would otherwise be inadmissible.). 23 Third, the court gave a cautionary instruction regarding the guilty pleas. The judge instructed the jury that Chan's guilty plea could not be considered as evidence of Tse's guilt. We consider such an instruction in weighing claims of prejudice by defendants. See U.S. v. Rivera-Santiago, 872 F.2d 1073, 1084 (1st Cir.1989) (Evidence of ... guilty pleas is amenable to misuse. Without instruction, it is possible the jury could use the pleas as evidence of ... guilt. This danger may be averted only by adequate cautionary instructions....). 24 Because Chan's plea was used properly to counteract the defendant's credibility attack and because the court gave an adequate cautionary instruction, we find no plain error. 25