Jacob Herron v. State of Indiana

OPINION

VAIDIK, Chief Judge.

Case Summary

Trials should primarily proceed on the basis of in-court testimony, not statements or affidavits obtained before trial. Yet at *554Jacob Herron’s trial for burglary and receiving stolen property, the State called a witness solely to impeach her with a pretrial statement, and did so by reciting segments of that statement. Because this statement was admitted solely for impeachment, the jury could not use it as substantive evidence. But given the lack of evidence against Herron, we conclude that the jury did rely on this evidence to convict him. For this…