Public Defense

Are an informant?s questions testimonial?

By Gideon

A co-conspirator is in jail. The police send in a confidential informant, wired, to talk to the co-conspirator. The informant asks the co-conspirator questions about the crime, prodding him, making assertive statements which elicit mono-syllabic responses from the subject.

The State attempts to use the transcription of the tape of that conversation as evidence against the defendant. Clearly, the co-conspirator had no idea that he was talking to someone acting for law enforcement or that his words would be used at trial. The question, though, is whether the informant’s questions testimonial under Crawford and thus inadmissible?

The CT Supreme Court recently faced this question in State v. Smith [pdf]. The Court notes:

In the present case, we view Williams? recorded statements as falling into three separate categories: (1) nonassertive vocalizations, e.g., ??mm-hmm?? or ??yeah??; (2) questions Williams directly posed to Estrella about the crime; and (3) statements Williams made that directly implicated Estrella or the defendant in the  commission of the crime.

The Court is quick to decide that the first category is non-testimonial. Deciding whether those that fall into the second category is a matter of context, the Court writes. Despite some leading questions, the Court finds that most of those questions about the crime were to provide context to other questions and were not assertions of fact.

In addressing the final category, the Court finds that the informant was clearly aware that this entire conversation was being taped with an eye to a prosecution. In fact, it was the informant who approached the authorities to obtain favor in his cases. The Court does not hesitate in finding those statements testimonial and since the informant was unavailable at trial, a violation of his Confrontation Clause right.

The defendant still lost on appeal, however, due to our good friend Harmless Error. The Court finds that the informants assertive statements were merely cumulative.

Still, it’s a good start and something to keep in mind in future cases. Where the transcript of any such conversation between the defendant and an informant is dominated by the informant, the CT Supreme Court can be fairly said to have ruled that those statements are testimonial.

Full post as published by A Public Defender on November 21, 2008 (boomark / email).