State v. Phelps, 192 Ohio App. 3d 484

Defendant-appellant Larry Phelps was convicted in 1995 of murder, kidnapping, and robbery of Merle Johnston and sentenced to life; conviction affirmed on appeal in 1996.
In 2009, Phelps was granted leave to file a motion for a new trial based on prosecutor’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence; after an evidentiary hearing, the court denied the motion in 2010.
Phelps challenged Laura, the key witness, alleging her 1985-1988 testimony was tainted by hypnosis and that hypnosis was not disclosed.
Laura testified in 1995; records show she was hypnotized in May 1988 as part of an investigation, but no record of the hypnosis proceedings exists in the appellate record.
Johnston guidelines were invoked to assess admissibility of hypnotically refreshed testimony; the court analyzed whether Laura’s testimony was independent of hypnosis and reliable.
The court ultimately held Laura’s hypnosis did not render the testimony unusable and found no due-process violation or new evidence warranting a new trial; denial affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether denial of the new-trial motion was proper	Phelps argues hypnosis tainted Laura's testimony and nondisclosure violated due process.	State argues hypnosis was admissible and non-prejudicial; no bad faith or Brady violation shown.	Denied; no reversible error; motion overrulled.

State v. Johnston, 39 Ohio St.3d 48 (Ohio: 1988) (hypnosis admissibility; independent memory versus refreshed testimony)
State v. Cook, 65 Ohio St.3d 516 (Ohio: 1992) (pretrial admissibility of hypnotically refreshed testimony when no additional information obtained)
State v. Geeslin, 116 Ohio St.3d 252 (Ohio: 2007) (potentially useful evidence does not by itself establish guilt or innocence)