State v. McDonald

Petitioner Derrick McDonald and two codefendants were convicted of murder and first-degree burglary. The court of appeals affirmed, rejecting McDonald’s argument that his Confrontation Clause rights were violated when the trial court admitted the redacted confession of one of his nontestifying codefendants. We granted a writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals’ decision in State v. McDonald, 400 S.C. 272, 734 S.E.2d 167 (Ct.App.2012). We find the court of appeals erred, for the jury would readily infer from the face of the codefendant’s confession that it referred to and incriminated…