People v. Patton

At the defendant’s trial on a charge of murder in the first degree, the prosecutor was permitted, over defense objection, to place into evidence an affidavit which the victim (defendant’s wife) had supplied in connection with a petition for a preliminary injunction in a divorce proceeding. Because we conclude that the affidavit was inadmissible as hearsay and that the admission of this evidence was not harmless error, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

I

The fact that the defendant stabbed and killed his *492wife was undisputed.1 The defense at trial essentially was that this was a crime of…