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Friday, May 23, 2008
Ind. Courts - More on "Supreme Court hears appeal of ex-trooper's murder convictions"
Updating yesterday's entry, Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal has this longish report today on yesterday's oral arguments that begins:
The jury that convicted David Camm of killing his family should have been told that his co-defendant had a fetish for women's feet that could have been a motive for the crimes, Camm's lawyer argued yesterday.The updated version of Bryan Corbin's story for the Evansville Courier & Press is available here.By excluding information about Charles Boney's criminal past -- which included attacks on women -- the trial court violated Camm's constitutional right to present a full defense, attorney Stacy Uliana told the Indiana Supreme Court.
Uliana also contended that the trial court exacerbated the problem by allowing Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson to say that Camm killed his family to cover up sexual abuse of his 5-year-old daughter -- even though there was no evidence directly linking Camm to the allegations.
"The trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the state to pursue an unsupported, uncharged and inflammatory accusation that David Camm molested his child," Uliana told the Supreme Court.
"With such a horrendous motive for David Camm and absolutely no motive for Charles Boney to be at the scene, there's no wonder that the jury found" Camm guilty, she said.
The two points seemed to strike a chord with some of the five justices, who asked repeated questions about evidence issues.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 23, 2008 10:08 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts