People v. Lee

Defendant, Albert Lee, III, was convicted of first-degree felony murder1 and sentenced to life imprisonment. We granted leave to appeal limited to:(1) Whether the testimony of witnesses who had been hypnotized was properly admitted; and(2) Whether similar acts evidence was properly admitted.

We hold first that the rules of People v Gonzales2 and People v Nixon3 were violated and thus that it was error for the trial court to admit the identification testimony of the hypnotized witnesses. Second, the similarities between the charged crime and the similar acts testimony satisfies the standards of…