Earl K. Johnson v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

Summary

The court held that allowing Pam Wetton, a key prosecution witness, to testify by Zoom based on health-related inconvenience violated Johnson's confrontation rights because the Commonwealth did not establish necessity and the trial court did not adequately address reliability concerns. The error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as to the four trafficking convictions, but it was harmless as to the organized-crime and complicity-to-murder convictions because other evidence overwhelmingly supported those verdicts. The court found no reversible error in the unpreserved character-evidence and hearsay claims, the denial of a mistrial, or the cumulative-error claim.