2001 MT 233
STATE OF MONTANA,v.
STEVEN FRANCIS
Did the District Court commit reversible error when it
admitted Derrick Steilman's out of court statements?
An erroneously admitted hearsay statement by an admitted participant in a murder that the
defendant also participated in the murder and that the defendant was the one who inflicted
the lethal blows is qualitatively very damning, especially in light of the complete absence of any other direct evidence of the defendant's participation (e.g., other admissible eyewitness testimony, a confession, or other physical evidence). Accordingly, we must
admit that there is a reasonable possibility that Steilman's confession implicating Francis might have contributed to Francis' conviction.
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.
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- Given was raised on the streets and in foster homes surrounded by twelve girls. By age 11, authorities already warned his foster mother: “He’s too smart for his britches — keep an eye on him.” That early spark of genius — later estimated in the 145–155+ IQ range (top 0.1% to 0.01% of humanity) — combined with an elite, poetic vocabulary that flows like open chords, propelled him into a life few could survive, let alone immortalize. From the age of 16, Given became a one-man crime wave: robbing 75 banks with nothing but a Bic Pen and a smile, inventing the Mercury Bandit invisibility trick with a baby thermometer, dropping through pharmacy roofs with a Superman pillowcase, and running from New Orleans detectives through the French Quarter while dressed as a 70-year-old woman. He served 12 years on a 10-year federal sentence, reading 120 volumes of Supreme Court decisions in the hole and ruling the law library like a throne. He met the devil twice on a dope-sick bed and refused to curse God — only to have angels physically grab his arm and pull him back. His 56+ stories pour out raw, unoutlined, and alive — no MFA polish, no ghostwriter, no filter. The prose is Hemingway-tight yet
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