State v. Patrick Jackson, 2007 WI App 145, PFR filed 6/6/07
For Jackson: Marcella De Peters
Issue/Holding:
¶20 Although finding that Natisha Watkins was unavailable as a witness because it permitted her to assert her Fifth Amendment right, the trial court excluded what Natisha Watkins told Papka because it determined that her statement that Carlos Williams and not Jackson handled the gun was not against her penal interest. Other than a passing contention that the trial court’s determination conflicted with the trial court’s assessment that Natisha Watkins could invoke her Fifth Amendment right to not testify, Jackson’s appellate brief does not argue why the trial court’s analysis was wrong. Indeed, the trial court was correct. See Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594, 600–601 (1994) (Rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the federal analogue to Wis. Stat. Rule 908.045(4), “does not allow admission of non-self-inculpatory statements, even if they are made within a broader narrative that is generally self-inculpatory.”).
