State v. Adviento
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Petitioner was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. On appeal, Petitioner argued that the circuit court abused its discretion when it ruled that evidence of Petitioner’s prior assault conviction would be admissible to rebut the affirmative, mitigating defense of extreme mental or emotional disturbance (EMED), which caused him to forego an instruction on the EMED defense. The intermediate court of appeals (ICA) affirmed. The Supreme Court vacated the judgments of the lower courts, holding (1) the trial court has a duty to instruct the jury on the EMED defense when it is raised by the evidence even where neither party requests the instruction; (2) thus, a defendant may not waive an instruction on the EMED defense; and (3) therefore, the circuit court in this case was obligated to instruct the jury on the EMED defense upon determining that there was sufficient evidence in the record to support the instruction, even where Petitioner waived the defense. Remanded.
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