Edwards

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case involves something of a murder mystery about which there is little mystery. In 1996, based on information obtained from Edwards’s wife, Kemet Gaines, Edwards was arrested and charged with first degree murder, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Before trial, and in anticipation of Gaines’s testimony, Edwards’s counsel John Meyers raised the issue of marital privilege under Cali- fornia Evidence Code § 980. The trial court ruled that although Gaines could testify about her observations of Edwards’s behavior around the time of the murder, she could 1170 EDWARDS v. LAMARQUE not specifically testify about conversations between them because of the privilege.

At trial, the prosecution’s evidence showed that, at some time in 1990, Edwards and the victim, Don Thomas, con- spired to defraud Edwards’s automobile insurance company. Thomas took Edwards’s Mercedes Benz, stripped parts from the car, and then abandoned it. Edwards reported the car as stolen and filed an insurance claim. According to their plan, once the Mercedes was “recovered,” they would then replace the parts and Edwards would pay Thomas for his…