State v. Smith
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree premeditated murder. Defendant was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of release. After a restitution hearing, the district court denied the victims’ families’ requests for restitution to cover the estimated cost of a headstone for each victim. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s first-degree murder convictions and reversed the district court on the issue of restitution, holding that the district court (1) did not commit reversible error when it denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment for individual and cumulative errors; (2) did not violate Defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial when it closed the courtroom to the public to discuss its written order on the admissibility of certain testimony; (3) did not commit prejudicial error in excluding four pieces of evidence; (4) did not commit misconduct in his closing argument; and (5) erred by allowing Defendant to challenge the restitution request for the headstones under Minn. Stat. 611A.045(3)(a).
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