Charles T. Williams v. J. E. Baker, Warden, New Mexico State Penitentiary

Appellant, a state prisoner, is serving a life sentence for murder. His first contention is that a mistrial should have been granted when the prosecution referred to a prior conviction as “statutory rape” when in fact the conviction was for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

“[I]nstances occur in almost every trial where inadmissible evidence creeps in, usually inadvertently. ‘A defendant is entitled to a fair trial but not a perfect one.’ ” Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 at 135, 88 S.Ct. 1620 at 1627, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968). In the instant case the trial court properly…