Vermont v. Peatman
Annotate this CaseDefendant Nathaniel Peatman appeals his convictions, following a jury trial, for first-degree aggravated domestic assault, aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, and resisting arrest. Defendant argues that his convictions must be reversed because the jury instructions failed to guarantee unanimous verdicts. The Vermont Supreme Court found that all of the alleged acts (as grounds for defendant’s convictions) took place over a span of six minutes as part of one continuous assault. From this, the Court concluded, it was clear that this case fit within the “election exception” because the acts were “inextricably intertwined” as one continuous offense. Therefore, the trial court’s initial instructions, which included a list of alleged acts that the court suggested the jury consider, and its answer to the jury question, which clarified that the jury did not have to elect specific acts and instead had to be unanimous that the element was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, was not in error. “It breathed the true spirit of the law” that there is an exception to the election rule in multiple-act acts and that the evidence presented qualified this case for said exception. Thus the Court affirmed the trial court.
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