State v. Lee

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The trial court erroneously instructed the jury when it omitted the relevant stand-your-ground provision from its instructions on self-defense, and Defendant was entitled to a new trial with proper self-defense and stand-your-ground instructions.Defendant was convicted of second-degree murder. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court’s “omission of a jury instruction that a person confronted with deadly force has no duty to retreat but can stand his ground” was error, or plain error. The court of appeals affirmed Defendant’s conviction. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) by omitting the relevant stand-your-ground provision from the agreed-upon instructions on self-defense, the trial court’s jury instructions constituted preserved error; and (2) Defendant showed a reasonable possibility that, had the trial court included the stand-your-ground provision in its instructions, a different result would have been reached at trial. The Court remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial. View "State v. Lee" on Justia Law