This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D was convicted to 90 days for having entered the U.S. illegally. During that incarceration in a minimum-security prison, D was found to have simply left without permission. D was later picked up, returned, and then subjected to interrogation. However, the interrogator did not know Spanish and employed the services of a bilingual guard, Tolavera. The interrogator made notes of his interrogation and immediately thereafter typed those notes. During trial, those notes were admitted into evidence without any attempt by the Government to ask the interrogator if he had an independent recollection of them. D objected the notes were admitted, and D was convicted and appealed.

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