State v. Simson

The issue in this criminal case is whether a trial court properly may instruct a jury that a witness’s testimony is accomplice testimony and should be viewed with distrust when that testimony does not implicate the defendant in the crime. We hold that the cautionary accomplice-witness instructions should only be given when the “accomplice” testimony implicates the defendant.

FACTS

Defendant had been a truck driver for United Grocers for twenty years. On December 18, 1985, at approximately 3:30 a.m., he made his regular breakfast stop at a Shari’s restaurant in Sherwood. He parked his truck in…