Garner v. United States

439 U.S. 936 (1978)

Facts

Garner (D) was convicted of conspiracy and offenses arising from his importation of heroin. Robinson plea-bargained, receiving a lesser charge in return for testimony against D. Robinson then refused to testify at trial. The government (P) introduced his grand jury testimony anyway under an exception to the hearsay rule. Robinson then took the stand and denied the grand jury testimony. D appealed. The Court of Appeals stated that Robinson's testimony should not be interpreted as implying that the grand jury testimony was false, but that he was afraid to testify against D. The Court affirmed, holding that the grand jury testimony's admissibility was not barred because it has strong indicators of reliability and because it was sufficiently corroborated by other testimony. D brought this writ for review.