United States v. Oslund

After a Brinks guard's murder, an informant identified Richard Oslund (defendant) as the perpetrator, and the FBI enlisted his close friend Thomas Russell to record hundreds of hours of conversations with Oslund over several months, including a drive to the crime scene where Oslund described how the crime occurred; Russell was incarcerated and did not testify at trial, so Agent Walden testified instead about how he equipped Russell with a tamper-resistant recorder and identified both speakers on the tapes. Oslund challenged the recordings' admissibility under United States v. McMillan, arguing inadequate authentication without Russell's testimony, unexplained gaps in the recordings, and improper inducement through a promised reward; the jury convicted him, and he appealed.