Court Opinion

ID: 9480531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:50:40.17357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:44.742630
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result:
Although I am pleased to join the separate opinion of Chief Judge Bauer, I think there is considerable merit to the majority opinion as well. I agree that Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 107 S.Ct. 2775, 97 L.Ed.2d 144 (1987), permits the jury to consider as relevant declarations made by a co-conspirator alleging a defendant’s membership in a conspiracy. But I do not understand the majority’s reluctance to decide the obvious in its otherwise comprehensive opinion: namely, whether such a statement made by a co-conspirator can, by itself, be sufficient to support a conviction for conspiracy. Chief Judge Bauer wrestles with this crucial question in his concurrence, but the majority seems content to reserve it for a later date — “[njothing we say in this opinion addresses the question whether hearsay alone is sufficient to support a verdict of guilt,” Majority Opinion at 632 —instead of facing up to it now. Unless the question is answered, the majority opinion remains dangerously unfinished.
The Assistant United States Attorney arguing this case showed no similar hesitancy. When asked at oral argument whether hearsay alone would be sufficient to support a conviction in a particular case, he responded unequivocally:
If I were a prosecutor, I wouldn’t give it to the grand jury. If I was a grand juror, I wouldn’t indict it. If I were a district court judge, I’d grant the Rule 29 motion [for judgment of acquittal]. If I were a juror, I would vote to acquit, and if I was a member of this court, I’d vote to reverse for sufficiency.
Certainly, we do not fashion our rules of law from the representations of one prosecutor. Yet his view has a lot to recommend it. First, as the Supreme Court recognizes in Bourjaily, a co-conspirator’s out of court statement is presumed to be unreliable, but this presumption may be rebutted “by appropriate proof. See Fed.Rule Evid. 803(24) (otherwise inadmissible hearsay may be admitted if circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness demonstrated).” Bourjaily, 483 U.S. at 179, 107 S.Ct. at 2781. Should the prosecution fail to produce any evidence rebutting the presumption of unreliability, there will be no “ap*639propriate proof”; the out of court statement, therefore, cannot become sufficiently reliable to support a conspiracy conviction. Second, the Court notes in Bourjaily that a co-conspirator’s statement, “unreliable in isolation, may become quite probative when corroborated by other evidence.” Id. at 180, 107 S.Ct. at 2781. Again, if there is no other evidence, all that remains is one piece of inadmissible, unreliable evidence, which is insufficient to support a conviction.
The majority does not require district judges to parrot the language of its newly-created instruction. When fashioning their own versions of this instruction, I believe that district judges should advise juries that, without more, a co-conspirator’s statement by itself is inherently unreliable and insufficient to support a conviction for conspiracy.