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MD: Trial testimony about CI's information was prejudicial

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A police detective was allowed to testify at trial that he received a tip from a confidential informant that a black male wearing a blue baseball cap and a black hooded sweatshirt was selling heroin at a particular intersection. That tip led to defendant's arrest. The testimony was inadmissible hearsay because it contained too much specific information about defendant and his criminal activity to be justified by the proffered non-hearsay purpose of establishing why the detective was at the intersection. The court found that the specificity of the informant's extrajudicial statement created a danger that the jury would misuse the information as substantive evidence of the defendant's guilt and the State proved that point by referencing the informant's tip for the truth of the matter asserted in closing argument...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 28, 2009 (boomark / email).