Major Crane v. Dewey Sowders, Warden, Attorney General of Kentucky

JOHN W. PECK, Senior Circuit Judge.

This appeal is before the court on the issue of whether the trial court’s exclusion of evidence of the circumstances surrounding the appellee’s confession, which was received in evidence, was harmless error. Appellee was convicted of murder. After exhausting state appellate procedures, Ap-pellee sought federal habeas corpus relief. The district court concluded that exclusion of the evidence was not harmless error and conditionally granted the writ of habeas corpus. The Commonwealth of Kentucky appealed. Our review indicates that the exclusion of the evidence…