State v. Wenning

Under ORS 138.060, the State may appeal an order made prior to trial dismissing or setting aside the accusatory instrument, or suppressing the evidence.

The State appealed an order denying its pre-trial motion requesting the trial court to determine that Defendant’s statements were admissions, rather than confessions.  The significance of that determination is that, where the only evidence that an offense has been committed is a person’s confession, there must be corroborating evidence for the statement to be admitted into evidence.  ORS 136.425.  Since the State had no corroborating evidence that Defendant committed the offenses, the State argued that if the statements were determined to be confessions, they would not be admissible as evidence that the charged offenses were committed, if the case proceeded to trial. The trial court’s order ruled that the statements were confessions--not admissions--and alerted the State that it would need corroborating evidence in order to withstand a motion for judgment of acquittal. On appeal, the State argued the trial court should have determined that the statements were admissions.  Under ORS 138.060, the State may appeal an order made prior to trial dismissing or setting aside the accusatory instrument, or suppressing the evidence. Because the trial court’s order did not dismiss or set aside the accusatory instrument, and because it did not suppress evidence, the State’s appeal of the order was not authorized by ORS 138.060.  Order not appealable; appeal dismissed.