Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (July 2023)

This post summarizes published criminal law and related decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals released in July 2023. Cases that may be of interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous Fourth Circuit summaries are available here. Rule of completeness did not require or permit the admission of self-serving hearsay U.S. v. Davis, ___ F.4th ___; 2023 WL 4876392 (July 10, 2023; amended August 1, 2023). The defendant was convicted by a jury of drugs and firearms offenses in the District of South Carolina and received a 180-month sentence as a career offender. While in pretrial custody for the charges, the defendant made two statements on recorded calls to his girlfriend. One of his comments indicated that the gun found in his car “ain’t mine;” the other indicated he did not want to discuss how the gun came to be in the car. The latter statement was offered by the government at trial as a party admission to show the defendant’s awareness of the weapon. The government sought to exclude reference to the first statement as self-serving hearsay. The defendant responded that the first statement should be admitted under the rule of completeness. The district court allowed the second, inculpatory statement to be admitted but excluded the first statement as hearsay. The defendant did not testify at trial, and the jury did not hear the first statement. On appeal, the defendant complained that this was an abuse of discretion. The Fourth Circuit disagreed. The rule of completeness operates to [...]