In United States v. Jass, decided this past June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revisited the issue of whether admitting a co-defendant’s confession in which references to the defendant have been replaced by the words “another person” violates the defendant’s Confrontation Clause rights.1
Marian Jass and Kenneth Leight were charged, inter alia, with sexually abusing “Victim 2,” a 12-year-old girl. According to Victim 2, Ms. Jass and Mr. Leight had taken her to a hotel room, given her alcohol, and performed sexual acts with her. The next day, Victim 2′s mother discovered suggestive underwear that the two adults had bought for the young girl. When her daughter admitted what had occurred, the mother reported Ms. Jass and Mr. Leight to the police.
