Everhart v. State

We agree with appellant’s claim of error in his conviction and sentence for first-degree murder.

In the instant case, the witness upon whose identification the state relied, in no way identified the defendant to the jury; rather, it was only a police officer’s recitation of that witness’ out-of-court statements which purported to establish that the witness had earlier identified the defendant’s picture. Thus, there was no sworn testimony before the jury in which the defendant was identified as the perpetrator of the crime.

Where the inescapable inference from testimony is that a non-testifying…