California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Coleman, 251 Cal.Rptr. 83, 46 Cal.3d 749, 759 P.2d 1260 (Cal. 1988):
Viewing the whole record of the guilt trial, this has to be one of the weakest cases to identify defendant as the perpetrator of the crime that I have seen. Further, there is substantial unimpeached alibi evidence. The evidence that defendant's [759 P.2d 1291] thumbprint was bloody was erroneously admitted, as the majority recognize. That error gave weight to defendant's thumbprint as establishing defendant as the perpetrator of the crime, and it is reasonably probable that a result more favorable to him would have been reached in the absence of the error. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836, 299 P.2d 243.) Accordingly the judgment should be reversed.
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