California v. Smith
Annotate this CaseDefendants Kiesha Smith and Michael Mitchell appealed their convictions for the murder of Josephine Kelley. Defendants were tried together before separate juries. Smith raised two contentions on appeal: (1) the trial court prejudicially erred in instructing her jury that any testimony from an accomplice required corroborating evidence before the jury could accept it as true; and (2) the trial court prejudicially erred in discharging Juror No. 8 during the jury's deliberations. For his part, Mitchell raised a number of claims challenging the trial court's admission of certain evidence regarding statements Smith purportedly made to acquaintances that inculpated both Smith and Mitchell in Kelley's murder. The Court of Appeal reversed Smith's first degree murder conviction on the ground that the trial court erred in instructing about accomplice testimony, so the Court did not address the discharge of Juror 8. With regard to Mitchell's argument, the Court disagreed with Mitchell's contention that the admission of certain statements violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him, but agreed that the statements should not have been admitted against him under California's rules of evidence. The Court further concluded that the admission of these statements was prejudicial to Mitchell under any standard of prejudice review, and that Mitchell's conviction had to therefore be reversed.
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