Court Opinion

ID: 9472320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:56:30.291247+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:52.028761
License: Public Domain

BARRETT, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I fully concur. However, I do question the vitality of the rule first announced in Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, *86969 S.Ct. 716, 93 L.Ed. 790 (1949), reiterated in Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S.Ct. 210, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970): that the hearsay exception which allows evidence of an out-of-court statement by one conspirator to be used against a co-conspirator during the course of or in furtherance of the conspiracy does not extend to actions of the conspirators to cover-up and conceal the criminal enterprise. State courts have generally rejected this rationale. In my view, the agreement among conspirators to “cover up” the criminal act committed is part and parcel of the scheme, and plan.
This court has already recognized exceptions to the Krulewitch rule. In Mares v. United States, 383 F.2d 805 (10th Cir.1967), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 963, 89 S.Ct. 1314, 22 L.Ed.2d 564 (1969), we held in a prosecution for armed robbery that acts and statements of the appellant made shortly after the armed robbery and before the arrest of either of the two defendants were admissible. In United States v. Cox, 449 F.2d 679 (10th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 934, 92 S.Ct. 1783, 32 L.Ed.2d 136 (1972) we held that a tape recording of a co-defendant and third party’s conversation which occurred the night after the robbery was admissible, even though the “active” conspiracy had terminated in terms of commission of the central act.
I am cognizant that the out-of-court statements at issue here were made some three weeks following the stabbing-killing and after appellant Silverstein’s arrest. It is my view that they should be admissible.