State v. Davis

Summary

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Raymond T. Davis’s convictions for first degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and use of a deadly weapon other than a firearm to commit a felony. The court held that the information adequately alleged an overt act supporting the conspiracy charge, the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions, and the State’s questioning of its own witness did not warrant reversal.

Holdings

1. An information charging conspiracy is not fatally defective merely because it alleges the substantive offense that was the object of the conspiracy as the overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. The conspiracy count sufficiently charged the offense.
2. An information first challenged on appeal is sufficient unless it is so defective that no construction could charge the offense of conviction; an information is fatally defective only when its allegations could be true and still fail to charge a crime.
3. The evidence was sufficient to support Davis's convictions for first degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and use of a deadly weapon other than a firearm to commit a felony.
4. Even assuming that the State improperly impeached its own witness with a prior statement, any error was harmless because the guilty verdicts were surely unattributable to the challenged exchange.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the conspiracy-to-commit-robbery count in the information was fatally defective because it alleged robbery as both the object of the conspiracy and the overt act.
2. Whether sufficient evidence supported Davis's convictions for first degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and use of a deadly weapon other than a firearm to commit a felony.
3. Whether the State improperly impeached its own witness with a prior statement and, if so, whether the error required reversal.

Disposition

affirmed