Thursday, September 6, 2012

Bourjaily v. US case brief


  1. Bourjaily v. US (US 1987)
    1. drug conspiracy case; informant G arranges a sale of a large amt of cocaine through L; question is whether, in proving charge against B, L’s statement to G is admissible
      • question of bootstrapping again – can ct only look to independent evidence in verifying existence of conspiracy, or may it also look to statement itself?
    2. holding: ct may look to the statement itself as part of the foundation of its admissibility, as long as that statement isn’t the whole of it
      • “The contents of the statement shall be considered but are not alone sufficient to establish … the existence of the conspiracy and the participation therein of the declarant and the party against whom the statement is offered …”

note: some jurisdictions might shift the “segregated” statements from the judge to the jury (i.e., jury has to make factual determination as to admissibility, and
only then can they consider statements w/r/t guilt)

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