Consciousness of guilt

Seventh Circuit determines that admission of an audiotape of robbery defendant beating and threatening the life of a potential witness was a “close[ ] call” but that its probative value in suggesting defendant’s guilty conscience “cannot be genuinely disputed” and that this evidence was not unfairly prejudicial despite the fact that one could hear the sounds of the beatings on the recording, in United States v. Calabrese, __ F.3d __ (7th Cir. July 14, 2009) (No. 08-2861).

/tip FederalEvidenceBlog.