California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Godines, C078214, C078601 (Cal. App. 2018):
connect the defendant with the offense. [Citations.] '[C]orroboration is not sufficient if it requires interpretation and direction to be furnished by the accomplice's testimony to give it value . . . .' [Citation.] It must do more than raise a conjecture or suspicion of guilt, however grave. [Citations.] On the other hand, unless a reviewing court determines that the corroborating evidence should not have been admitted or that it could not reasonably tend to connect a defendant with the commission of a crime, the finding of the trier of fact on the issue of corroboration may not be disturbed on appeal." (People v. Falconer (1988) 201 Cal.App.3d 1540, 1543.) "Although corroborating evidence need only be slight and may be entitled to little consideration when standing alone [citations], it is not sufficient to merely connect a defendant with the accomplice or other persons participating in the crime. The evidence must connect the defendant with the crime, not simply with its perpetrators. [Citations.] Likewise, it is insufficient to show mere suspicious circumstances." (Ibid.)
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