State v. Baker
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of aggravated assault and domestic violence terrorizing. Defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury that it was required to acquit him if it found that the State failed to disprove self-defense and by failing to provide the jury with revised written instructions to correct an error in the written instructions that had been given to the jury when it began its deliberations. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment of the trial court, holding (1) the court’s instructions on self-defense suffered from two structural flaws that, taken together, rose to the level of obvious error; and (2) the prejudicial effect of the deficient instructions was compounded by the court’s decision not to give the jury corrected written instructions. Remanded.
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