Taylor v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseIn 2017, Malik Taylor was the driver in a drive-by shooting in which one of his passengers, Jyleel Solomon, was killed by return fire. Taylor was convicted of felony murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting. At trial, he claimed that he was shot at first and fired his gun in self-defense. The jury rejected that claim, and on appeal, Taylor contended that the trial court’s jury instruction on the affirmative defense of justification could have led the jury to wrongly believe that Taylor bore the burden of proof on that defense. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected Taylor’s argument because it reject his reading of the jury instruction: in context, it was clear to the Court that the instruction correctly informed the jury about the defense of justification, including the principle that the defendant may not assert the defense if he used force during the commission of a felony. So Taylor’s convictions and sentence were affirmed.
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