Headley v. Tilghman
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
53 F.3d 472 (1995)
Andrew Headley (defendant) was prosecuted for possession with intent to distribute narcotics. At trial, the judge admitted evidence of a phone call in which an unidentified caller asked Headley seemingly innocent questions like "Are you up? Can I come by? Are you ready?" An expert testified that such coded, innocuous-sounding questions are commonly used in the drug trade to arrange purchases. A jury convicted Headley, and on post-conviction review, the Second Circuit examined whether the trial court properly admitted the caller's statements over a hearsay objection.
Whether an out-of-court statement containing seemingly innocuous questions is inadmissible hearsay when offered to prove the caller believed he was arranging a drug purchase, or admissible non-hearsay as evidence of the caller's act of making the call.