State v. Scurry

OPINION

LEDERBERG, Justice.

Before this court is the appeal of Willie Scurry (defendant) from a Superior Court judgment of conviction. The decisive issue is whether the defendant should have been granted a new trial because of the state’s midtrial misrepresentation that the only corroborating witness the defendant planned to call had an extensive criminal record. The error forced the defendant to abandon his opening promise to the jury that a witness would corroborate his testimony. We are of the opinion that the state’s inadvertent error denied the defendant the right to present his fullest…