State v. Leger

Summary

The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed Donald Lee Leger, Jr.'s first-degree-murder conviction and death sentence for the December 2001 shooting of Troy Salone during the armed kidnapping of Kimberly Zimmerman. The court identified a single constitutional defect — the police failure to honor Leger's mid-interview invocation of his right to remain silent during his first videotaped statement — but held its admission harmless beyond a reasonable doubt at both the guilt and penalty phases in light of overwhelming eyewitness and physical evidence. All remaining claims, including involuntariness, right-to-counsel violations, ineffective-assistance and conflict claims, denial of self-representation, allegedly suggestive photographic identification, and warrantless seizures of his jacket and gloves, were rejected as non-reversible.