A murder trial featuring video of a paralysed shooting victim blinking to identify his assailant ended this week in a conviction.
A Prince George's County, Maryland, jury found Jermaine Hailes, 25, guilty of first-degree murder in the 2010 slaying of Melvin Pate, 29.
Pate was left paralysed during a drug robbery, but he blinked in response to being shown a picture of Hailes in a photo line-up, identifying the man who shot him. Pate died before Hailes went to trial, but police had recorded the photo line-up.
Before the case went to trial, prosecutors and Hailes' lawyers fought over whether the video of Pate's blink identification could be used as evidence. Hailes' lawyers argued that the use of the video at trial would not allow their client to confront his accuser in court, a right outlined in the Sixth Amendment. Prosecutors said Pate's blink should be considered a "dying declaration," which is exempt from the confrontation clause.
The legal arguments in the case were further complicated because Pate was told he had only about 24 hours to live shortly before he identified Hailes in the photo line-up, but he lived as a quadriplegic for two years before his death in 2012.