State v. Palmer

The defendant has been tried twice, convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to death. The majority now holds that the defendant must be tried a third time or set free because the State used the testimony of his divorced spouse in the second trial.

All authorities seem to agree that once a divorce decree becomes “final,” a divorced spouse is a competent witness. At the time of the second trial in this case, a judgment had been entered in the trial court divorcing the defendant from his spouse. Because the defendant’s appeal in the divorce proceeding was pending, the court holds that the…