State v. Jones
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The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the court of special appeals overturning Defendant's conviction based on a lack of independent evidence that would corroborate accomplice testimony, holding that Maryland's common law accomplice corroboration rule is hereby abrogated and that the jury, after proper instruction about the possible unreliability of accomplice testimony, is entitled to weigh the sufficiency of the evidence without the need for independent corroboration.
Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit armed carjacking. The court of special appeals reversed, holding that the accomplices' testimony was not independently corroborated by other evidence, which left the remaining evidence legally insufficient to sustain Defendant's conviction. The Court of Appeals held (1) the common law accomplice corroboration rule, which requires that accomplice testimony be independently verified to sustain a conviction, is hereby abrogated and replaced with a modified common law rule; and (2) the new rule should not apply to Defendant.
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