State ex rel. Games-Neely v. Hon. Gray Silver III (Signed Opinion)
Annotate this CaseDonal Bowers was charged with alleged sex crimes against an eleven-year-old girl. The assistant prosecutor filed a motion in limine to obtain an advance ruling on the admissibility of the diary of the alleged victim. The circuit court concluded that the statements within the diary were admissible under hearsay rules. The court, however, excluded a certain two-page entry, reasoning that the statements, though relevant to the prosecution’s case and probative of the crimes of which Bowers was charged, presented an unacceptable risk of improperly inflaming the jury. Furthermore, the circuit court ruled that photocopies of the diary entries and illustrations would be substituted in place of the diary itself. The prosecutor filed this petition for extraordinary relief challenging the exclusion ruling and the substitution ruling. The Supreme Court granted the requested writ as mounded, holding (1) the circuit court manifestly erred in excluding the substantive two-page entry at issue; but (2) the circuit court’s ruling relating to the manner in which the diary should be presented to the jury was not manifestly in error.
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