Adalberto Martinez v. Massachusetts

Whether the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments permit the State, in a joint criminal trial, to introduce for its truth a non-testifying codefendant’s out-of-court accusation expressly implicating the defendant, on the theory that the statement was made years after the charged offense during an ongoing “joint venture” to conceal the crime, where the statement was made privately to a family member who already knew of the allegations and where the defendant had no opportunity to cross-examine the declarant.