Case Title: Ex Parte Stork

Citation: 475 So. 2d 623

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1985-07-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
475 So. 2d 623 (1985)
Ex parte Francis Louise STORK.
(Re: Francis Louise Stork v. State of Alabama).
No. 84-227.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
July 3, 1985.
Edwin L. Yates, Montgomery, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Phillip Luke Hughes, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
MADDOX, Justice.
Petitioner, Francis Louise Stork, seeks review of the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals, 475 So. 2d 622, which upheld the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of third-degree assault.
The sole issue before this Court is whether a person who denies committing an offense with which he is charged is, nevertheless, entitled to a jury instruction on a lesser included offense supported by the evidence.
Petitioner was charged with assault in the first degree, and the trial court charged the jury on assault in the first and second degrees, but refused petitioner's request to charge on assault in the third degree. The jury found petitioner guilty of assault in the second degree and the court sentenced her to three years' imprisonment.
According to the Court of Criminal Appeals:
Petitioner cites Ex parte McGee, 383 So. 2d 205 (Ala.1980), which states:
The Court of Criminal Appeals cited Wesley and Williams, supra, in support of its judgment that petitioner was not entitled to the requested instruction on assault in the third degree. Wesley, citing Williams as authority, states at 424 So.2d 652:
We hold that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in its interpretation of Williams, supra. The correct principle applied in Williams was stated at 377 So.2d 634:
Under Williams and McGee, "[t]he defendant has the right to request instructions based upon any material hypothesis which the evidence in his favor tends to establish." In this case, one view of the facts would be that petitioner was involved in fighting with the victim, although she denied that she either fought with the victim or that she stabbed the victim. The evidence that she fought with the victim would justify a charge of the lesser included offense of third-degree assault, Code *625 1975, § 13A-6-22 (causing physical injury intentionally, recklessly, or with criminal negligence), under McGee, supra.
This Court in Ex parte Chavers, 361 So. 2d 1106 (Ala.1978), opined:
Because the Court of Criminal Appeals applied the incorrect principle of law on lesser included offenses, its judgment is due to be reversed and the cause remanded.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
TORBERT, C.J., and FAULKNER, JONES, ALMON, SHORES, EMBRY, BEATTY and ADAMS, JJ., concur.