Episode 040 - Conversation with Professor of Law Ben Trachtenberg

Episode 040 - Conversation with Professor of Law Ben Trachtenberg.mp3

This podcast is of a conversation with Professor Ben Trachtenberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at BLS for the current academic year. The conversation is about his recent article, The Exception Swallowing the Hearsay Rule: Coconspirators, 'Coventurers', and the Confrontation Clause where he discusses his research into the history of the hearsay rule and the exception for statements of co-conspirators. In the article, Professor Trachtenberg argues against a revisionist view of the exception by some prosecutors who disclaim the need to show any wrongful goal whatsoever and argue that when proving the existence of a "conspiracy" to justify admission of evidence under the exception, they need show only that the declarant and the defendant were "coventurers" with a common purpose, not an illegal purpose. This Article contends that such a reading of the Exception is mistaken and undesirable.

In the fall, Prof. Trachtenberg taught Criminal Law and is teaching Environmental Law this spring. He joins BLS from Covington & Burling LLP, where he was a litigation associate. Prior to that, he clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with the Hon. Jose A. Cabranes. He served as an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review and is the author of "State Sentencing Policy and New Prison Admissions," 38 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 479 (2005).