People v. Heard

Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder 1 and on appeal contends that his trial was only a notch better than the Dreyfus trial. Virtually nothing transpired which is not claimed to be error and the brief on appeal yields 15 issues (two of which are identical) and argues an estimated 11.

On oral argument (by counsel other than the trial counsel and preparer of the brief), an attempt was made to reduce the matters to specificity. While many issues still remain somewhat arcane, we proceed to explore and resolve the most nearly meritorious.

The defendant first contends that under GCR 1963,…