State v. Clark

In 1970, a police officer was fatally shot near a residence in the Selby-Dale neighborhood. Larry Clark (defendant) and Ronald Reed, members of a group called the United Black Front, had earlier discussed killing a police officer, and witnesses placed the pair near the scene carrying a rifle shortly before the shooting. Decades later, Constance Trimble -- who had placed a decoy emergency call to draw police to the scene -- testified that Reed and Clark could have slipped away to commit the shooting while she waited nearby. Clark was convicted of aiding and abetting murder and conspiracy to commit murder, based partly on Trimble's testimony. Clark appealed, arguing the evidence was insufficient and that the trial court should have instructed the jury on the unreliability of accomplice testimony as to Trimble.