Johns v. State

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s conviction for first-degree murder, entered after a jury trial. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court erred in several ways instructing the jury and that the court utilized an improper stepped verdict form. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding (1) any error or confusion that may have existed in the jury instructions regarding the law of self defense could not have prejudiced Defendant; (2) Defendant failed to demonstrate plain error in the district court’s jury instructions regarding the State’s burden of proof regarding a “sudden heat of passion” in voluntary manslaughter; (3) there was no plain error in the verdict form the district court submitted to the jury; and (4) the district court did not commit plain error when it did not provide the jury a definition of “recklessly” or “enhanced recklessness” within the instruction defining malice in second-degree murder. View "Johns v. State" on Justia Law