State v. Huckabee (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-020-17, 16 pp.) (John Geathers, J.) Appealed from Marlboro County Circuit Court (Michael Baxley, J.) S.C. App. Holding: Testimony that was not expressly offered to identify defendant as the perpetrator but that included criminal ...

Tagged with: Harmless Error

U.S. v. Garcia-Lagunas (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-140-16, 64 pp.) (Diaz, J.) No. 14-4370, Sept. 1, 2016; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Fox, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Allowing a government witness to testify that an accused drug dealer lived in “squalid” conditions ...

Tagged with: Harmless Error

State v. Jenkins (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-071-15, 11 pp.) (Jean Hoefer Toal, C.J.) (Costa Pleicones, J., dissenting) Appealed from Charleston County Circuit Court (Deadra Jefferson, J.) On writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals. S.C. S. Ct. Holding: Despite ...

Tagged with: Harmless Error

State v. Black The trial court erred when it admitted evidence of a defense witness’s 1987 manslaughter convictions for which he was imprisoned until 1993. These convictions did not rest on dishonest conduct and are not particularly probative of the specific trait of truthfulness. Nevertheless, the error was harmless.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice CSC with a Minor Evidence Harmless Error

State v. Salley The trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence sticks (with staples protruding from them) which were seized from a trashcan outside defendant’s home, when those sticks were only submitted to show the type of instrument that could have caused the child-victim’s injuries.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice Evidence Harmless Error Homicide by Child Abuse

State v. Tapp Even though the trial court should have ruled on expert testimony’s reliability, the court’s failure to do so was harmless error since the expert did not testify about the facts critical to the jury’s decision.

Tagged with: Criminal Practice Evidence Expert Witness Harmless Error

U.S. v. Byers Even assuming the district court erred in allowing testimony about defendant's alleged prior shooting of another man, or testimony from the later murder victim's girlfriend, the 4th Circuit says any errors were harmless and did not unfairly affect the trial of two codefendants in this murder-for-hire case involving the fatal shooting of a witness to prevent him from testifying against one of the codefendants in a state murder trial.

Tagged with: Evidence Harmless Error murder-for-hire

U.S. v. Barnette A district court's refusal to provide the defense with clean copies of the juror questionnaires was clearly an abuse of its considerable discretion in the proceedings after remand on a capital murder defendant's Batson claim, but the 4th Circuit says the error was harmless, as the record shows the error in refusing to allow defendant access harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Tagged with: Harmless Error Jury & Jurors