United States v. Slatten

Nicholas Slatten (defendant) worked for Blackwater Worldwide Security providing security for the United States State Department in Iraq. In 2007, Blackwater contractors were involved in shootings in Baghdad’s Nisur Square that killed or injured many Iraqi civilians. Hours after the shootings, State Department investigators spoke with one of Slatten’s teammates. The investigators told Slatten’s teammate that if he was honest, nothing he said would be used against him. Slatten’s teammate told the investigators that he shot the driver of a white Kia sedan. The teammate repeated his claims two more times, always under promise of immunity. Accounts from two Iraqi police officers and other Blackwater contractors corroborated Slatten’s teammate’s statements. Nevertheless, the United States (plaintiff) asserted that it was Slatten who shot the Kia’s driver and charged Slatten with first-degree murder. His teammate and two other Blackwater contractors (defendants) were charged with manslaughter. Before trial, Slatten asked to be tried separately because he wanted to introduce his teammate’s statements to the investigators as exculpatory evidence, and those statements would not be admissible in a joint trial with his teammate. The district court denied Slatten’s request after finding that the statements were inadmissible hearsay. Slatten was convicted of murder, and he appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.