Fitzpatrick v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseFranklin Fitzpatrick was found guilty of the murder Sheriff’s Deputy Dewayne Crenshaw. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He appealed his conviction and sentence, arguing: (1) the trial court erred in giving jury instruction that allowed for conviction without a proper showing of the requisite mental state; (2) the trial court erred when it overruled Fitzpatrick’s motion for new trial based on the weight of the evidence; and (3) the trial court erred in ruling Fitzpatrick was procedurally barred from challenging the elements jury instruction on appeal because he did not object to it at trial. Because the jury instruction was a correct statement of the law, and Fitzpatrick’s arguments were otherwise without merit, the Supreme Court affirmed Fitzpatrick’s conviction and sentence.
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