Barnes v. State

I would grant Barnes’s petition for rehearing. In this case, the State in its opening statement told the jury about Barnes’s “night vision” statement prior to the trial court hearing Barnes’s motion to suppress the statement. The next day the trial judge held a Denno hearing and found the “night vision” statement inadmissable. The majority affirmed the lower court based on sufficiency of the evidence viewed through harmless error pursuant to Landreth v. State, 331 Ark. 12, 960 S.W.2d 434 (1998).

Rather than Landreth, the case of Elliot v. State, 335 Ark. 387, 984 S.W.2d 362 (1998), is…