State v. Morrell

SEARS, Chief Justice.

This appeal presents the question whether, in a criminal case, the State has the right to appeal from an oral order suppressing a statement given by the defendant to the police. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the State may appeal an oral order only under certain exceptional circumstances. Because those circumstances are not present in this case and because the appellee, Kenneth Morrell, has been acquitted by a jury, we dismiss the State’s appeal.1

1. The day before Morrell’s trial for murder was scheduled to begin, the trial court orally granted Morrell’s…