From Tuesday's decision in People v. Ramsey, by Justice Frances Rothschild, joined by Justices Helen Bendix and Gregory Weingart (expurgations in original, as are the unexpurgated slurs):
Rashaud Ramsey appeals the judgment of conviction for murder….
Police arrested Hassan [Ramsey's alleged coconspirator] on November 10, 2022, more than a year after the Ramsey interrogation and almost two years after the shooting. Detectives placed him in a cell with an undercover law enforcement officer and audio-recorded their conversation. The recording was played at trial.
The officer asked Hassan, "Wassup with you? Why you got your head down [B]lack man?" Hassan responded that he was "messed up" and did not know what to do. The officer told Hassan, "Got to keep your head up. Wassup N***a? I've been through some shit. But what the fuck they talking to you about?"
Hassan told the officer that his cousin and his cousin's friend killed a "boy, and shot his brother and his sister." He admitted he was at the scene of the murder but denied participating in it.
The officer said, "So, so you said your peoples was up in the house? So what happened with their shit n***a?" Hassan responded that "[b]asically, what was supposed to go down was a robbery, and a robbery didn't take place." Hassan explained that his cousin and the friend had asked him to participate in a robbery, and Hassan agreed. While in the car Hassan's cousin and the friend talked "some nonsense" about killing someone. Hassan told them it was not worth it, and they did not need to kill anybody. They appeared to agree, but once they got to the crime scene, Hassan's cousin and the friend "bust[ed] in shootin[g]."
