State v. Rooks

(for the majority):

In this first degree murder case the State appeals a pre-trial ruling of the Trial Judge declaring two statements of a previously tried co-defendant inadmissable. The first statement was found by the Trial Judge to have been involuntarily obtained by the police because it was induced by the promise of freedom from charges arising out of an unrelated pending robbery case, and by the expectation of a reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the murder. The second statement was ruled inadmissable under the “fruit of the…