Opinion ID: 2995409
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Santiago hearing.

Text: In United States v. Santiago, 582 F.2d 1128 (7th Cir. 1978), overruled on other grounds by Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171 (1987), we articulated the appropriate standard for determining the admissibility of hearsay evidence under the co-conspirator exception, concluding that if it is more likely than not that the declarant and the defendant were members of a conspiracy when the hearsay statement was made, and that the statement was in furtherance of the conspiracy, the hearsay is admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(E). Id. at 1134. In cases following that decision, we have identified several options available to the district court to determine the admissibility of Santiago evidence: (1) make a preliminary determination based on the government’s proffer of evidence, (2) rule on each statement as elicited at trial based on the evidence presented at that point, (3) conditionally admit the evidence without a proffer subject to eventual supporting evidence to be presented sometime at trial (risking, of course, a possible mistrial), or (4) hold a full-blown pre-trial hearing to consider all the evidence and make a decision. See, e.g., United States v. McClellan, 165 F.3d 535, 553-54 (7th Cir. 1999). Although we have identified these several alternatives, we have often discouraged the fourth alternative, a full- blown pre-trial hearing, as inefficient and potentially duplicative. Id. at 554. Following this instruction, the district court opted for the first alternative, conditionally allowing the challenged hearsay statements on the government’s proffer of evidence and delaying a final determination until trial, and it did not abuse its discretion by proceeding in this manner.