Opinion ID: 386112
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hackett's Motions for Severance

Text: 39 Before Turner was arrested in front of Hackett's residence, he stated in response to questioning that he had never been to Hackett's house and did not even know who lived there. He also said he had just returned from the phone booth down the road at the yacht club. Agents who had been staked out at the yacht club knew this to be false. 40 Hackett charges Bruton error in the admission of testimony about these false exculpatory statements, or in the district court's failure to sever trials so that Turner could be cross-examined. 41 Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), held that the admission in a joint trial of extrajudicial statements made by one codefendant that inculpate another codefendant could violate the confrontation clause when the declarant elects not to take the stand and is therefore unavailable for cross-examination. See Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 88, 91 S.Ct. 210, 219, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970); United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d 730, 734 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1090, 96 S.Ct. 883, 47 L.Ed.2d 101 (1976). The test, as restated by this court, is whether, 'under the circumstances, the unavailability of the declarant for cross-examination deprived the jury of a satisfactory basis for evaluating the truth of the extrajudicial declarations.'  United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d at 734, quoting United States v. Adams, 446 F.2d 681, 683 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 943, 92 S.Ct. 294, 30 L.Ed.2d 257 (1971). 42 Here, however, Turner's statements were admitted not for their truth, but merely for the fact that the statements were made. See United States v. Fried, 576 F.2d 787, 792-93 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 895, 99 S.Ct. 255, 58 L.Ed.2d 241 (1978). Combined with other evidence showing Turner's statements to be false, the mere fact that Turner made them implied his consciousness of guilt. The agent who recounted Turner's statements was available for cross-examination on whether Turner in fact made them. Thus, cross-examination of Turner was not necessary to protect Hackett's confrontation right on the question whether Turner in fact made the statements. See Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 220-21, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2260-61, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974); Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. at 88, 91 S.Ct. at 219. 43 Furthermore, we do not agree that Turner's attempt to disassociate himself from Hackett implied an assertion by Turner of Hackett's guilt. Whatever tangential effect Turner's statements may have had on Hackett in the eyes of the jury, we deem the connection between the statements and (Hackett's) culpability to be too remote to require reversal under Bruton. United States v. Brown, 551 F.2d 639, 647 (5th Cir. 1977), rev'd on other grounds, 569 F.2d 236 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). 44 Finally, the district court was correct in refusing to limit the admission of Turner's statements to Turner alone. As we have already held, Turner's statements were not hearsay. See United States v. Fried, 586 F.2d at 793. Thus it was not necessary that they were in furtherance of the conspiracy in order to be admissible against the other defendants. See Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 221, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2261, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974). (Turner's statements were) accordingly admissible simply if relevant in some way to prove the conspiracy charged. Id.; see Lutwak v. United States, 344 U.S. 604, 617, 73 S.Ct. 481, 489, 97 L.Ed. 593 (1953). 45 By showing Turner's consciousness of guilt of his participation in the conspiracy, obviously these statements tend to establish the existence of the conspiracy. Thus, the statements were relevant and admissible against Hackett.
46 Co-conspirator Stanton, who packaged and shipped the cocaine from Bolivia, 5 attempted to negotiate a plea bargain with the prosecutors by making a tape-recorded statement describing his innocent involvement in the cocaine shipment. His preposterously improbable exculpation involved two mythical characters of the same name, one of whom was the true guilty party. Hackett was mentioned only in passing. 47 Stanton was unsuccessful in his negotiations with the prosecutors, but they agreed to keep Stanton's statement secret. The court, however, later ordered the statement disclosed to the defense as possible Brady material. Hackett immediately moved for severance from Stanton on the ground that if the statement were admitted, Hackett would be prejudiced merely by being associated with such a palpably fanciful story. 48 When the Government did not offer the statement, Hackett promptly moved for its admission on the ground that it exculpated him. Alternatively, Hackett moved for severance to take Stanton's exculpatory testimony. The statement was clearly inadmissible hearsay. It was not error to exclude it. Nor was it error to deny severance. 49 Joint trials are favored for the reason of judicial economy, and a denial of severance is reversible only where it is so prejudicial that the district court could have exercised its discretion in only one way. Parker v. United States, 404 F.2d 1193, 1194 (9th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S 1004, 89 S.Ct. 1602, 22 L.Ed.2d 782 (1969). When the reason for severance is the asserted need for a codefendant's testimony, the defendant must show that he would call the codefendant at a severed trial, that the codefendant would in fact testify, and that the testimony would be favorable to the moving defendant. United States v. Vigil, 561 F.2d 1316, 1317 (9th Cir. 1977) (per curiam). Here, Hackett does no more than baldly assert that he would call Stanton and that Stanton would testify at a separate trial.  'The unsupported possibility that such testimony might be forthcoming does not make the denial of a motion for severance erroneous.' (Citation.) United States v. Bumatay, 480 F.2d 1012, 1013 (9th Cir. 1973). 50 Moreover, there is no credible testimony that Stanton could give that would exculpate Hackett. Hackett contends that when Stanton gave his statement, Stanton was being offered leniency in return for his incrimination of Hackett and Turner. Even though Stanton's statement did not actually exculpate Hackett, Hackett suggests that the mere fact that Stanton failed to incriminate him in the face of the Government's offer is clearly exculpatory. But there is no evidence the Government offered such a deal to Stanton. Furthermore, Stanton's primary purpose was to exculpate himself, not to incriminate Hackett. He asserted a complete lack of knowledge of any criminal activity until after he heard of Hackett's and Turner's arrests. Stanton could not have incriminated Hackett and still claimed ignorance. The less mention made of Hackett, the better, for Stanton it provided less opportunity to be controverted as to specific facts. 51 Moreover, Stanton's entire statement was inherently incredible. At best, any inferential exculpation of Hackett would have been insignificant in the face of all the uncontroverted evidence showing Hackett's guilt. At worst, as Hackett originally feared, associating himself at all with Stanton's statement would have been prejudicial. 52 It was not an abuse of discretion to deny Hackett's motions for severance.