California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Morales, 189 Cal.Rptr.3d 650 (Cal. App. 2015):
People v. Haydel (1974) 12 Cal.3d 190, 202, 115 Cal.Rptr. 394, 524 P.2d 866 [noting the prosecutor's reliance on evidence made inadmissible because of an involuntary confession was not harmless error, when the record showed "that evidence was a prominent part of the prosecution's case, and the introduction of that evidence occupied a substantial portion of the trial"].)
Although the jury heard that defendant was in possession of the victim's car and cell phone and that defendant sometimes stayed at the victim's apartment, we cannot say on this record that the guilty verdict of defendant was "surely unattributable to the error" in admitting the coerced statements of defendant in violation of Miranda. (See Sullivan v. Louisiana (1993) 508 U.S. 275, 279, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 124 L.Ed.2d 182.)11
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