McCloud v. State
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Petitioner was convicted of second-degree murder. On appeal, Petitioner argued that the jury instruction on the required lesser included offense of manslaughter by act improperly required the jury to find that Petitioner intended to cause the victim’s death. Petitioner’s conviction was affirmed on the grounds that the jury also received an instruction on manslaughter by culpable negligence. The Supreme Court quashed the decision below and remanded in light of the Court’s decision in Haygood v. State. On remand, the district court again affirmed the conviction. The Supreme Court approved the ultimate holding of the district court but not the reasoning, holding (1) because the Fifth District employed the same reasoning as the Fourth District in Daughterty v. State, a decision the Supreme Court ultimately quashed, and applied an erroneous steps removed analysis, the Court disapproves of the reasoning in McCloud; but (2) the error caused by the incorrect instruction was cured by the jury’s consideration of other offenses also one step removed from the offense of conviction.
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