United States v. Taylor

728 F.2d 930 (7th Cir. 1984)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Taylor (D) was charged with robbery. A dispute over the calling of Neff as a witness took place outside the presence of the jury. The prosecutor had informed the court that although Neff was given immunity before the grand jury that the government was going to revoke that immunity based on evidence that Neff had perjured himself before the grand jury. Neff was alleged in fact to be a friend of D and conspired with D to do the robbery and had unexplained cash after the robbery and that Neff had a weapon and borrowed another that were like the ones used in the robbery. Neff indicated that he would assert his rights under the Fifth Amendment. D charged that the defense only revoked Neff's immunity to frustrate D's defense and asked the court to compel the extending of immunity to Neff. The trial court ruled that Neff was unavailable pursuant to rule 804(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Evidence and allowed excerpts of Neff's grand jury testimony in which Neff denied involvement in the robbery. D claimed violations of his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights; the government alone was able to determine immunity, and it had an immediate advantage to revoke that immunity to diminish D's ability to defend himself.