Manslaughter conviction overturned, new trial ordered for South Jersey man

A Salem County man will get a new trial after New Jersey’s Supreme Court threw out his manslaughter conviction in the death of an elderly neighbor.

Dwayne Slaughter was convicted of killing 79-year-old Roosevelt Morrow in Morrow’s Salem City home in 2005.

Among the evidence used at Slaughter’s trial was an audiotaped statement by his girlfriend that described Slaughter’s allegedly incriminating remarks.

The woman later claimed she didn’t remember the remarks, and she didn’t testify at the trial. Slaughter appealed his conviction on the grounds that his constitutional right to confront witnesses against him was violated by the playing of the audiotape in court.

An appeals court rejected that argument, but in an opinion released Tuesday the Supreme Court held that playing the tape deprived Slaughter of his rights.