Court Opinion

ID: 9635716
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:01:29.360613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:33.786698
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. I agree with the majority opinion that the prosecution’s direct evidence, as testified to by Gloria Burnette, was legally insufficient to support a verdict of guilt. I disagree, however, that the statements of appellant were “sufficient to provide an indicia of trustworthiness to the testimony of Gloria Burnette on the critical issue sufficient to permit the question to be properly left to the trier of fact.”
Appellant’s statements reveal nothing. The majority, however, infers from them circumstantial evidence corroborating the testimony of Gloria Burnette. To do so is clearly wrong. Appellant’s statements establish nothing more than her knowledge of Burnette’s wish to kill the deceased and of Burnette’s possession of a revolver and bullets. Appellant also admitted that she bore ill will towards the deceased. The conclusions that appellant knew that Burnette actually would kill the deceased and that appellant participated in the murder cannot be inferred from appellant’s testimony. As such it does not corroborate the testimony of Burnette.
*70I would, therefore, reverse the jury’s finding of guilt on the ground that it relied upon unreliable and uncorroborated accomplice testimony which was insufficient to support a verdict of guilty.
ROBERTS, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.