Court Opinion

ID: 9658800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:14:40.472144+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:59.662179
License: Public Domain

Dell, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
Considering the evidence as a whole and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, I am of the opinion that under such cases as State v. Rasmussen, 241 Minn. 310, 63 N. W. (2d) 1, the testimony of the accomplice was sufficiently corroborated to satisfy M. S. A. 634.04. As I see it there was a fact question involved which the jury had a right to decide as it did. What importance was to be attached to the sworn statement made by Reznick subsequent to the trial and whether it was of such probative force as to require a new trial, presented questions which the trial court was in a far better position to decide than this court. In a memorandum attached to the order denying defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, the court stated:
“The Court is of the opinion that the defendant had a fair trial; that it was free from the slightest taint of bias or prejudice, and that the verdict was justified by the evidence. To grant a new trial upon the entire record in this case, including the so-called newly discovered evidence, would not, in the opinion of this Court, be in the interests of justice.”
In my opinion, on the record before us, the lower court was justified in refusing to set aside the conviction and I therefore dissent.