Court Opinion

ID: 9474291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:53:22.532747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:00.613557
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the court’s disposition of this case, although I disagree with its analysis of the issue of whether the government must make a showing of unavailability before hearsay statements of a coconspirator will be admitted pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E).
For the reasons set forth in my concurrence in United States v. Molt, 772 F.2d 366, 371 (7th Cir.1985), I do not believe that the extra-judicial coconspirator statements of Ruggiero were properly admitted. The government did not demonstrate that Ruggiero was unavailable to testify because his guilty plea negates Ruggiero’s right to claim any fifth amendment privileges, and he could be required to testify. See Reina v. United States, 364 U.S. 507, 513, 81 S.Ct. 260, 264, 5 L.Ed.2d 249 (1960); United States v. Heldt, 668 F.2d 1238, 1253 (D.C.Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 926, 102 S.Ct. 1971, 72 L.Ed.2d 440 (1982); United States v. Fleming, 504 F.2d 1045, 1050 (7th Cir.1974). Nonetheless, as I stated in my concurrence in Molt, the law of this circuit is clear and I am constrained to follow it; in addition, the defendant can still obtain relief if the Supreme Court affirms United States v. Inadi, 748 F.2d 812 (3d Cir.1984), cert. granted, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 2653, 86 L.Ed.2d 271 (1985).