 Jackie Washington was charged with first @-@ degree murder in Dallas , Texas . At the trial , Washington testified on his own behalf , and he put a great deal of the blame on an accomplice named Charles Fuller . He testified that Fuller had been carrying the murder weapon — a shotgun — at the scene . When he sought to have Fuller testify to back up his story , the trial judge blocked him on the basis of a Texas statute which provided that " persons charged or convicted as co @-@ participants in the same crime could not testify for one another " . The law , however , did not block a co @-@ participant from testifying for the state . 
