United States Second Circuit

Conviction for conspiracy to commit and aiding and abetting a murder-for-hire, in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1958, is vacated and remanded where: 1) the district court's admission of a plea allocution was plain error under Crawford; but 2) the evidence presented at trial, including the improperly admitted plea allocution, was legally sufficient to prove section 1958's consideration element.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/11/2008
• Published 04/14/2008

Judges

• WINTER, Circuit Judge:, Before:  WINTER, WALKER, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Susan V. Tipograph (Thomas Eddy, on the brief), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellant Glen Hardwick., Benjamin M. Lawsky, Assistant United States Attorney (David N. Kelley, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Karl Metzner, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Appellee.