State v. Jamison

Summary

The court held that the trial court's failure to give an accomplice-credibility instruction sua sponte was an obvious error but did not satisfy the demanding prejudice requirement for plain-error reversal. The jury had been made aware of the witness's motive to seek leniency, received a general credibility instruction, and therefore was not shown to have suffered a manifest injustice. The court also concluded that any error arising from the compelled handwriting exemplar was harmless because the evidence did not affect the convictions at issue.