2008-M-072             State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Prentis Cordell Jackson, Appellant.

Appellant Prentis Cordell Jackson was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Michael Anthony Bluntson.  On direct appeal, appellant seeks the reversal of his conviction on the basis that the district court did not give the jury an accomplice corroboration instruction.  The Court upheld the  conviction.

The Court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to give the jury an accomplice corroboration instruction as to two witnesses against appellant where neither of those witnesses could have been indicted and convicted for the crime with which appellant was charged.

DISSENT:  Justice Page opined:  “I respectfully dissent.  An obvious problem presented by this case is the fact that the testimony of Jenkins, Lamar, and Williams is as untrustworthy and unreliable as that of an obvious accomplice.  Jenkins, Lamar, and Williams all had a motive to testify against Jackson in the hope of avoiding criminal liability for any role they may have played in Bluntson’s death.  Thus, I believe that the purpose underlying our requirement that a conviction not rest on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice should also apply with equal force to situations in which the only direct evidence of the defendant’s actual involvement in the charged crime comes from witnesses who were present when the crime took place, had a motive to commit the crime, and whose testimony is not only the only testimony incriminating the defendant but is also the only evidence exculpating the witness.”

Barry Anderson (Russell Anderson, Paul Anderson, Meyer, and Gildea)

               Dissent:  Page

               Took no part:  Dietzen

[MURDER}