United States v. McFall
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
558 F.3d 951 (2009)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Monte McFall (defendant) was indicted on crimes stemming from an alleged extortion scheme. Neat Allen Sawyer testified before the grand jury. Sawyer was later indicted as well but had not been at the time of his testimony. Sawyer’s testimony largely corroborated McFall’s version of events. At McFall’s trial, Sawyer was unavailable to testify because he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. McFall sought to introduce the transcript of Sawyer’s grand-jury testimony as admissible former testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(1). The district court sustained the prosecution’s objection on the ground that the government’s motives in questioning Sawyer before the grand jury were not sufficiently similar to what its motives would be at trial. McFall was convicted, and he appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Tashima, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
