Can a defendant prevent his spouse from testifying in a grand jury investigation?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Vaccaro, 816 F.2d 443 (9th Cir. 1987):

Two separate marital privileges exist. The first is the marital communication privilege, which allows a defendant to prevent his or her spouse from testifying about statements privately communicated by one spouse to another. In re Grand Jury Investigation of Hugle, 754 F.2d 863, 864 (9th Cir.1985). The second is a privilege against adverse spousal testimony, which can be asserted only by the witness-spouse. Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40, 53, 100 S.Ct. 906, 913, 63 L.Ed.2d 186 (1980). This is a broader privilege which allows the exclusion of "evidence of criminal acts and of communications made in the presence of third persons." Id. at 51, 100 S.Ct. at 913.

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