State v. Clay
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of felony murder, attempted aggravated robbery, and criminal possession of a firearm. The district court sentenced Defendant to twenty-five years to life for his murder conviction. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions but vacated his sentence, holding that the district court (1) did not err in failing to give a lesser included instruction on unintentional second-degree murder; (2) erred by issuing an eyewitness identification jury instruction with the degree of certainty factor, but the error did not justify reversal; (2) erred by responding in writing to jury questions, but the error had no appreciable impact on the jury’s verdict; (3) did not err in refusing to grant Defendant a new trial because the jury learned that Defendant was previously in prison and that he was in custody during the trial; but (4) improperly sentenced Defendant to twenty-five years to life instead of twenty years to life, improperly subjected Defendant to lifetime postrelease supervision, and failed to inquire about Defendant’s ability to reimburse Board of Indigent Defense Services for attorney fees before ordering him to pay $1,000.
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