Opinion ID: 3062180
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hearsay and Bad-Acts Evidence

Text: Defendant claims that the trial court violated his constitutional rights when it admitted guilt-phase testimony from Shane McInturff’s friend Brian Brown that (1) McInturff had once said that Defendant owed McInturff $800 for drugs and (2) McInturff had once told Brown that Defendant had fired a gun in the direction of a Ferris wheel. The OCCA held that this testimony was improperly admitted under state law but was harmless. See Dodd, 100 P.3d at 1034–36. Although it did not address Defendant’s constitutional arguments, its analysis of harmlessness is cogent and persuasive. No reasonable jurist could say that admission of the evidence “had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” Fry, 551 U.S. at 116 (internal quotation marks omitted).