260 results for 'cat:"Jury Instructions"'.
J. Tenney finds that the trial court erred in giving a jury instruction on the classifications of defendant's drug and paraphernalia possession charges.
He was convicted of the paraphernalia count but not the possession count, and he failed to show that he would have received a more favorable outcome without the improper instructions. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 20210552-CA, Categories: Drug Offender, jury Instructions
J. Sheehan finds the trial court erroneously instructed the jury during defendant's trial on rape and gross sexual imposition charges that the element of force could be proven by evidence the victim's "will was overcome by fear or duress alone." Although defendant was the victim's stepfather, she was 18 at the time of the sexual assault and was not, by definition, a child. The victim admitted during her testimony that defendant did not force her to do anything when he assaulted her in the shower, and although there is other evidence in the record that could satisfy the heightened force standard - including that the victim urinated on herself when defendant initially touched her - the jury instruction deprived defendant of a fair trial and his convictions must be vacated. Reversed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Sheehan, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-471, Categories: Fair Trial, Sex Offender, jury Instructions
J. Benton finds a lower court properly sentenced a defendant to 270 months in prison and five years probation for possession with intent to sell 50 grams or more of meth. The defendant argued that the lower court erred in allowing a supplemental instruction for jury questions. However, the government sufficiently showed in court that the instruction did not prejudiced the defendant, who claimed it was "phrased negatively." Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Benton, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: 23-2149, Categories: Drug Offender, Probation, jury Instructions
J. Egan finds the trial court plainly erred by instructing the jury on the statutory definition of inchoate “attempt” for informing the elements of fleeing or attempting to elude a police office. The law requires that a person “knowingly attempt to escape the notice or perception of a police officer.” Reversed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Egan, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: A178387, Categories: jury Instructions
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J. Ross partially reverses the imprisoned man's conviction for escape from custody, and dismisses an appeal of drug- and ammunition-possession charges. The imprisoned man has made no arguments supporting his notice of appeal for the drug and ammunition charges, but the district court abused its discretion in failing to instruct jurors that the state was required to prove that the prisoner's failure to return to custody following a furlough for his mother's funeral was voluntary and intentional. Reversed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Ross, Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: A23-0128, Categories: Escape, jury Instructions
J. Gregory finds the lower court improperly convicted the doctor on 861 counts of the unauthorized prescription of opioids. The government misstated the law in the jury instructions by failing to state that the doctor could only be convicted if he knew that his conduct in prescribing opioids to substance abusers was unauthorized. Vacated.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Gregory, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 19-4761, Categories: Drug Offender, jury Instructions
J. Hiland finds the court of appeals improperly reversed the trial court's defendant's convictions for DWI and refusal to submit to testing after his arrest for being passed out drunk in his vehicle on the side of the road. The arresting officer testified he had difficulty awakening defendant, who eventually referred to the officer as "mom." The officer smelled alcohol and saw other signs of defendant's intoxication. No abuse of discretion is found in the court's denying a mistrial where defense opened the door to allegedly prejudicial statements about defendant's blood alcohol level or where the possible prejudice could have been cured by an admonition to the jury. Vacated.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Hiland, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: CR-22-452, Categories: Evidence, Dui, jury Instructions
J. Moore reverses the defendant's convictions for first-degree premeditated murder, attempted first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder while committing a kidnapping and kidnapping to commit great bodily harm or terrorize, but remands her case for further proceedings on the kidnapping and felony murder charges. The state has provided evidence sufficient to support a reasonable inference that the defendant knew that a fake house showing she set up with the murder victim, a realtor, on behalf of her romantic partner and his friends was a setup for a kidnapping and murder plot, but the circumstances proved also support a reasonable inference that she believed the end goal of her partner's plan was a less serious crime than premeditated murder. The circumstantial evidence used to support her convictions, therefore, was insufficient to sustain her convictions for first-degree premeditated murder and attempted first-degree premeditated murder under an aiding-and-abetting theory of liability. Additionally, the district court issued impermissible hybrid jury instructions, combining accomplice liability and the underlying elements into a single instruction which misstated the law by allowing the jury to convict the defendant of kidnapping without reaching the issue of liability under an aiding-and-abetting theory. These erroneous instructions were also not harmless. The defendant's other arguments regarding jury instructions and sufficiency of evidence fail. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: A22-0163, Categories: Murder, Kidnapping, jury Instructions
J. Dannehy finds the trial court was not required to include the crimes defendant intended to commit when he broke into his brother's residence in its jury instruction on defendant's first-degree burglary charge. Although such a list is preferred, the instructions in this case accurately recited the elements of the burglary charge and made it clear the jury was required to find defendant intended to commit other crimes upon entry into the residence. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Supreme Court, Judge: Dannehy, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: SC20721, Categories: Burglary, jury Instructions
J. Castillo finds that the trial court properly instructed the jury not to draw an adverse reference from the refusal of the alleged victim in defendant's domestic violence trial to testify, as she had properly invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege through counsel. Also, substantial evidence supported the decision not to excuse a juror for bias. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Castillo, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: D080776, Categories: Domestic Violence, jury Instructions
J. Froelicher finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of voyeurism. There was enough evidence to find that he had violated the relevant voyeurism statute, he was not prejudiced by any alleged improper instructions to the jury, and the lower court was within their rights to deny his request to suppress evidence of his voyeurism on a series of computer memory cards. Affirmed.
Court: Wyoming Supreme Court, Judge: Froelicher, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: S-23-0020, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Evidence, jury Instructions
J. Lagoa finds that the district court properly convicted defendant of Hobbs Act robbery and correctly sentenced him to 180 months in prison. The district court correctly rejected defendant's proposed jury instruction on evaluating eyewitness identifications. The pattern instruction substantially covered defendant's proposed instruction. Statements made by two detectives and an FBI agent were not prejudicial to defendant. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including surveillance video showing that the robber pointed a gun at a store employee and wore boots which were found in defendant's car. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Lagoa, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: 22-10408, Categories: Robbery, jury Instructions
J. Kamins finds the trial court plainly erred in failing to instruct on the mental state for the element of sexual contact but declines to correct the error. The guilty verdicts, which indicate that the jury believed the touching had occurred make it "unlikely that the jury did not also find that defendant knowingly subjected the victim to sexual contact.” Affirmed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Kamins, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: A178211, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims, jury Instructions
J. Flaum finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's habeas petition stemming from the state court's decision to answer a jury question ex parte during defendant's criminal trial on robbery charges. The communication did not have a substantial an injurious effect on the jury's verdict. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Flaum, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: 22-3082, Categories: Habeas, Robbery, jury Instructions
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in sentencing defendant to life in the shooting death of another person. Defendant argued his rights were infringed by comments made during the trial, including by a cop who testified during guilt-innocence that the shooting was “absolutely not” justified, but even if this opinion testimony was improperly admitted, it “does not result in constitutional error,” not least because defendant did not timely object to it, and the jury rejected defendant’s mitigating arguments despite receiving proper instructions. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00115-CR, Categories: Sentencing, Due Process, jury Instructions
J. Murphy finds the trial court properly found defendant guilty for breaking or entering. The victim's security video showed defendant exiting the victim's vehicle, from which he had removed the battery after noticing his keys were missing. The state presented sufficient evidence of criminal intent and not merely that defendant broke into the vehicle. The jury could reasonably infer defendant was preparing to steal the car, which would not start due to the removed battery. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Murphy , Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: CR-22-614, Categories: Evidence, Theft, jury Instructions
J. Markle finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of rape and aggravated sodomy. The trial court did not commit any error by failing to instruct the jury on attacking a witness's credibility. Evidence of defendant's prior statutory rape conviction was correctly admitted because it was relevant to defendant's identity and intent. Defendant failed to show that his trial counsel performed deficiently. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Markle, Filed On: January 4, 2024, Case #: A23A1753, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender, jury Instructions
J. Aoyagi finds trial court properly declined to declare a mistrial after a witness vouched for the complainant that contributed to defendant’s conviction for two counts of first-degree sodomy. “The court took appropriate corrective action to address the situation, including striking the testimony, giving a detailed curative instruction, and giving a final instruction that reiterated the jury’s singular responsibility for making credibility determinations.” Affirmed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Aoyagi, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: A176792, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims, jury Instructions
J. Clark finds that the lower court improperly convicted defendant of drug possession after cocaine was found in his backpack during a traffic stop. Defendant should have been granted a jury instruction on a lesser included possession offense because his explanations for his presence in town, the cocaine, and the weight scale plausibly countered the intent-to-sell element of the original charge. Reversed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Clark, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 112202, Categories: Drug Offender, jury Instructions
J. McKinnon finds that the trial court gave the jury in defendant's sexual intercourse without consent trial the wrong definition of "knowingly" for the "without consent" element. It said the crime involves an act with a high probability that the other person does not consent. Instead, the crime requires that he knowingly had intercourse without the other person's consent. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: DA 21-0372, Categories: Sex Offender, jury Instructions
J. Maraman partially finds the lower court properly convicted defendant of the sexual assault of a 16-year-old. The prosecution did not vouch for the victim in a statement about her memory of the incident, as he was referencing evidence and there is sufficient evidence that the victim was physically helpless and unable to communicate properly due to severe intoxication. The jury’s consent instruction was also therefore proper, though the instruction regarding aiding and abetting was not. The instruction did not include that aiding abetting includes demonstrating specific intent of defendant and the two friends he committed the assault with, and the omission may have caused the jury to convict defendant of a separate assault charge. Affirmed in part.
Court: Guam Supreme Court, Judge: Maraman, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: CRA21-14, Categories: Sex Offender, Assault, jury Instructions
[Consolidated, redacted.] J. Sabatino finds that the trial court properly convicted defendants of armed robbery of Poppie's Deli based on surveillance video that captured defendants taking the victim out of the building. Defendant was not prejudiced by the decision allowing the jury to view the video several times in slow motion because the court exercised proper discretion, and video playback occurred in open court within the presence of counsel. Affirmed.
Court: New Jersey Appellate Division, Judge: Sabatino , Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: A-0377-20, Categories: Evidence, Robbery, jury Instructions
J. Freyre finds the failure by the trial court to include a complicity instruction during defendant's trial on a murder charge constituted a structural error. While the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, it found he did not use a deadly weapon, which is entirely inconsistent with the state's theory of the case that defendant was the shooter. Therefore, the state failed to prove every element of the murder charge and defendant's conviction must be vacated.
Court: Colorado Court Of Appeals, Judge: Freyre, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 2023COA121, Categories: Murder, jury Instructions
J. Boggs finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Defendant failed to show that his substantial rights were affected by the trial court's failure to give the jury an instruction on no duty to retreat. The trial court correctly gave the jury a sequential unanimity instruction on involuntary manslaughter as a lesser offense of murder. Defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's alleged deficiencies. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Boggs, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: S23A0906, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, jury Instructions