Richard Allen: Why the State Keeps Calling Everything Harmless Error
From Hidden Killers Live! Daily True Crime News & Breakdowns by Hidden Killers Podcast
May 4, 2026 · 1h 38m
About this episode
Bob Motta discusses the Indiana Attorney General's use of harmless error in Richard Allen's appeal and the implications for the case.
The Indiana Attorney General's response to Richard Allen's appeal uses harmless error the way a contractor uses spackle — applied to every crack in the wall and meant to convince you the structure is sound. Defense attorney Bob Motta reads the ninety-four-page brief as a document designed not to defend the evidence, but to prevent the appeals court from ever reaching it. The procedural strategy is waiver — arguing that the defense failed to properly preserve its objections at trial, which would shut down most of the appeal before substance is addressed. Where the AG does engage on substance, the framework is consistent: even if the trial court was wrong, it did not matter. The eyewitness sketch excluded from the jury — harmless. The firearms expert who would have challenged whether a bullet could be linked to Allen's weapon — harmless. The phone calls where Allen questioned his own sanity minutes before and after confessing — harmless. The confessions themselves — in which Allen told his prison psychiatrist he shot the girls, when they were killed with a blade — apparently reliable enough to sustain a 130-year sentence. Motta examines what the AG does not address. The van…
People in this episode
Guest: Bob Motta
Topics covered
- Richard Allen
- harmless error
- appeal process
- trial strategy
- eyewitness testimony
- confessions
- evidence
Keywords
- Richard Allen
- harmless error
- appeal
- Bob Motta
- trial court
- evidence
- confessions
- eyewitness sketch
- FBI data
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Indiana Attorney General
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