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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No.99-K-1272 STATE OF LOUISIANA
Versus ANWAR HADDAD (SENTENCED AS "ANWAR G. HADDAD")

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON

JOHNSON, Justice*
Defendant, Anwar Haddad, was convicted in Jefferson Parish pursuant to LSA-R.S. 14:95.1, which makes it unlawful for a convicted felon to possess a firearm or carry a concealed weapon. We granted this writ of certiorari to determine whether the trial court erred in failing to give the jury a "neutralizing instruction" to neutralize any inference jurors might draw from the defendant's failure to call the driver of the vehicle in which he was a passenger at the time of his arrest as a witness at trial. After a review of federal precedents and jurisprudence from other states, we conclude that the defendant was entitled to have the trial court give a neutralizing instruction and that the failure to do so was not harmless error. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeal's decision and the defendant's conviction, and we remand this case to the trial court for a new trial. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The defendant, Anwar Haddad, was a passenger in an automobile which was stopped by Sergeant Brady Buckley, an officer on routine patrol for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Officer Buckley testified that as he was traveling on Causeway Boulevard in Metairie, he witnessed a vehicle proceeding in the wrong direction of a one-way exit ramp to the Interstate 10 Service Road. The officer stated that, as he pursued the vehicle, the driver began to make erratic lane changes. At that point, Officer Buckley activated his police lights and siren. The vehicle did not immediately stop, but

*

Victory, J., not on panel. See Rule IV, Part 2,

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