State v. Cannon

MARTIN, Justice.

Upon the single issue raised on this appeal, we hold that the trial judge erred and defendants are entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

At the commencement of this trial on armed robbery charges, a lengthy voir dire hearing was conducted to determine the admissibility of identification evidence —not only were there two eyewitnesses, the robbery was also recorded by a video camera and defendants were apprehended hiding under a house shortly after the robbery. After ruling that the identification evidence was admissible, the trial judge held an unrecorded bench conference about…