People v. Green
Colorado Court of Appeals
629 P.2d 1098 (Col. App. 1981)
Winifred Green (defendant) was charged with hiring someone to shoot Frank Moore; at trial, the prosecution introduced testimony from Green's sister-in-law that weeks after the shooting, she heard Green's wife yell at Green that "she wasn't scared of him just . . . because he had Frank [Moore] shot," to which Green made no response. Green was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and criminal solicitation, and appealed the admission of this testimony as improper hearsay.
Whether a defendant's silence in response to another person's incriminating out-of-court statement constitutes an adoptive admission sufficient to admit that statement against him under the party-admission hearsay exception.