The PEOPLE v. Murdock

I agree that the convictions must be reversed because the prosecutor concealed the identity of an important witness, but I do not agree that the testimony of the defendant at the coroner’s inquest was properly admitted in evidence.

The majority sustains the admission of this testimony because it is “unwilling to extend” the concept of a “criminal proceeding” to include a coroner’s inquest. The characterization of a coroner’s inquest as a stage of a criminal proceeding does not, however, depend upon an act of will on the part of the members of this court, but rather upon the incidents and…