Heather Swain, Appellant v. State of Arkansas, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Swain’s convictions for accomplice to capital murder and accomplice to kidnapping, holding that officers’ references during her recorded interrogation to statements by nontestifying codefendants were admitted to provide context for her changing responses rather than for the truth of the statements. Because the references were therefore treated as nonhearsay, the court concluded that they did not implicate the Confrontation Clause, particularly where the trial court gave a limiting instruction. Justice Baker, joined by Justice Hart, dissented, asserting that the statements were testimonial hearsay and that the Confrontation Clause analysis could not be avoided by characterizing them as interrogation techniques.