United States v. Donley

A jury convicted Malcolm Donley (defendant) of the first-degree murder of his wife, Linda Donley. Malcolm did not deny killing Linda, but his defense was that he killed Linda in the heat of passion shortly after finding Linda in bed with another man. Malcolm also did not contest most of the prosecution’s (plaintiff) evidence. Linda was asleep in bed when Malcolm killed her. The Donley family lived on a United States Air Force base because Linda was stationed there as a sergeant, and the base’s housing office was considering terminating Linda’s entitlement to base housing due to repeated domestic disturbances between Linda and Malcolm. Linda developed a plan to convince Malcolm that the Donleys were being evicted and that Linda wanted to separate and move in with her parents; Linda hoped that Malcolm would move out first and Linda would stay on the base. The district court admitted hearsay statements that Linda made to her mother, Mrs. Brown, as proof of Linda’s plan and state of mind before the murder. Brown testified that she (1) visited the Donleys the day before Linda’s murder, (2) saw that Linda had begun packing, and (3) heard Linda mention the move, separation, and division of property to Malcolm. Malcolm appealed, arguing that the district court had erred by admitting Linda’s hearsay statements not just to prove Linda’s plan but also to prove Malcolm’s future conduct. Malcolm asserted that it was unnecessary to admit Brown’s highly prejudicial testimony about Linda’s statements because another witness, Captain Swanson, gave evidence of Linda’s plan. Malcolm further claimed that Brown’s testimony did not prove that Malcolm heard Linda’s statements.