United States v. Laurence John Layton

Layton was indicted and tried on four counts arising from the killing of Congressman Leo Ryan and the wounding of Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission for the United States in the Republic of Guyana. Layton was charged with (1) conspiracy to murder a Congressman in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 351 (d); (2) aiding and abetting the murder of a Congressman in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 , 351(a); (3) conspiracy to murder an internationally protected person (Dwyer) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1117 ; and (4) aiding and abetting the attempted murder of an internationally protected person in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 , 1116(a).

Layton’s first trial ended in a hung jury, and the district judge declared a mistrial. Before the second trial, the government moved pursuant to rule 12(d) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for an order allowing the government to present at retrial certain statements that were ruled inadmissible during the first trial. The excluded statements, which we will analyze in four main categories, were all held inadmissible either as hearsay which did not fall within any exception to the hearsay rule, or as violative of the confrontation clause of the sixth…