State of West Virginia v. Daniel L. Herbert

Justice KETCHUM:

The Defendant, Daniel L. Herbert, appeals his convictions arising from deliberately shooting a man twice in the back and, in the process, accidentally shooting an eight-year-old girl.

The Defendant’s primary argument is that the circuit court violated his constitutional right to compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor. At trial, the Defendant claimed he acted in self-defense, but the circuit court refused to require a victim, the alleged aggressor, to take the stand in the jury’s presence on the ground that the witness refused to testify and that he was a…