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People v. Meredith (Cal. Ct. App. - June 15, 2009)

By Shaun Martin

Everyone admits it was wrong for the trial court to start the criminal jury trial with the defendant still wearing his prison orange jumpsuit. But Justice Hull seems right that given the evidence at trial, there's no real doubt that the defendant was guilty, or at least that the whole jumpsuit thing didn't matter.

Why, you might ask, did the trial court let the jury see the defendant in his prison orange? Especially after it granted defendant's (form) motion in limine to let the defendant wear "civilian" clothes at trial? Because -- and I've never seen this before -- no one had civilian clothes available that would fit the defendant. To which you might think: "Is the dude 800 pounds or something?"

Nope. 6' 4", 268 pounds.

You'd think that the defendant -- or even the Sheriff -- could find this size clothing somewhere in Sacramento (which was where the trial was). Heck: Just borrow whatever clothes Ron Artest (6' 7", 260 pounds) wore the last time he was in jail in Sacramento. That should work.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).