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Criminal Practice — Second-Degree Murder – Jury Instructions – Provocation – Self-Defense
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff//May 29, 2021//
Criminal Practice — Second-Degree Murder – Jury Instructions – Provocation – Self-Defense
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff//May 29, 2021//
Eyewitnesses who had been using controlled substances gave conflicting testimony about the interaction between defendant and the victim after defendant sold the victim cocaine. Although there was evidence that, as defendant was walking out of the victim’s house, the victim charged defendant and hit him with a flashlight, there was no evidence that defendant was acting in perfect or imperfect self-defense when defendant shot the victim in the back from a distance of 14 to 21 feet. Accordingly, the trial court properly instructed the jury on provocation and the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter but withheld a jury instruction on self-defense.
We find no prejudicial error in defendant’s conviction of second-degree murder.
State v. Jumper (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-137-21, 17 pp.) (John Tyson, J.) Appealed from Rockingham County Superior Court (Stanley Allen, J.) Jeremy Lindsley for the state; Michael Casterline for defendant. 2021-NCCOA-226
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