People v. Bichara
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for first degree murder and kidnapping. Defendant initially waived his right to remain silent under Miranda v. Arizona, but then invoked the right prior to confessing to the murder by saying, "I refuse to talk to you guys." Defense counsel forfeited defendant‘s challenge to admission of the confession on this ground by failing to specifically and timely object at trial. The court held that counsel's inaction resulted in a prejudicial denial of effective assistance of counsel as to the murder conviction because the prosecutor relied upon the confession heavily in her arguments to the jury. The court concluded, however, that defendant was not prejudiced with respect to the kidnapping conviction where evidence of the offense consisted of the victim's testimony, surveillance video capturing the crime, and corroborating testimony from two independent witnesses. Furthermore, defendant did not mention the kidnapping in his confession, nor did the prosecutor rely on it when arguing the kidnapping charge. Therefore, the court reversed the murder conviction, affirmed the kidnapping conviction, and remanded.
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