Case Name: PEOPLE v. ALEXANDER
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1971-05-21
Citations: 33 Mich. App. 704
Docket Number: Docket No. 7750
Parties: PEOPLE v. ALEXANDER
Judges: Before: Y. J. Brennan, P. J., and Levin and O’Hara, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 33
Pages: 704–711

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v. ALEXANDER
Opinion of the Court
1. Homicide — Manslaughter — Instruction to Jury — Defining Degrees of Homicide.
Defining the various degrees of homicide to enable the jury to reach an intelligent verdict in defendant’s trial for manslaughter was proper and did not result in a compromise verdict where the jurors were never instructed that they could find defendant guilty of the higher degrees'of homicide.
Dissent by Levin, J.
2. Homicide — Manslaughter — Magistrate’s Decision — Effect — Malice — Instruction to Jury.
Examining magistrate’s decision to bind defendant over for trial on a manslaughter charge because the homicide evidently was committed under circumstances negating malice was not subject to jury review and obviated any need to instruct the jury regarding malice even though the complaint charged first-degree murder.
3. Homicide — Manslaughter — Malice — Instruction to Jury — Propriety.
Examining magistrate’s decision to reduce the charge against defendant from first-degree murder to manslaughter removed malice as an issue from the case and obviated the need for any instruction to the jury regarding malice; the jury should have been simply told that the homicide was manslaughter if the victim’s death was intentionally caused by defendant without excuse or justification.
4. Homicide — Manslaughter—Malice—Instruction to Jury.
Malice, express or implied, about which the judge charged the jury at great length in defendant’s trial for manslaughter, was completely extraneous to the real issues where the defendant, although admitting that he struck the victim with a cue stick, contended that he did so in self-defense and that the victim died, not because of defendant’s blow, but as a result of a fall shortly before his death.
References for Points in Headnotes
40 Am Jur 2d, Homicide § 525.
40 Am Jur 2d, Homicide § 500.
5. Homicide — Manslaughter—Malice—Instruction to Jury.
Instmcting the jury on malice in defendant’s trial for manslaughter was reversible error because malice was not an issue, the instruction not only diverted the jury from the real issues to a non-issue, but also confused and distracted the jury, and because such unnecessary instruction exposes a defendant to the danger of prejudice and a compromised verdict.
6. Criminal Law — Instructions to Jury — Instructions on Non-Relevant Crimes.
A rule allowing instructions to the jury as to crimes or degrees of crimes other than the crimes or degrees of crimes actually charged is basically unsound because the interjection of instructions regarding irrelevant crimes, under the claim of elucidation, is more likely to divert the jury’s attention than it is to focus the jury’s attention upon the relevant issues.
7. Homicide — Manslaughter—Malice—Degrees op Murder — Instruction to Jury.
Instructing the jury at length on malice and the various degrees of murder was reversible error where the defendant was on trial for manslaughter.
Appeal from Genesee, Elza H. Papp, J.
Submitted Division 2 September 2,1970, at Detroit.
(Docket No. 7750.)
Decided May 21, 1971.
Paul Alexander was convicted of manslaughter. Defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, Robert F. Leonard, Prosecuting Attorney, and Donald A. Kuebler, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
William J. Hayes, for defendant on appeal.
Before: Y. J. Brennan, P. J., and Levin and O’Hara, JJ.
Former Supreme Court Justice, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment pursuant to Const 1963, art 6, § 23 as amended in 1968.

Opinion:
O'Hara, J.
Defendant was charged with and convicted of the crime of manslaughter. The trial judge found it necessary to define all of the elements of the various degrees of homicide from murder through manslaughter. The crime of first-degree murder is defined by statute, as is second-degree murder. The definition of second-degree murder is a negative one, to wit: "All other kinds of murder shall be murder of the second degree ." The next highest degree of illegal homicide, manslaughter, is not even defined by statute and the courts must look to the common law for its definition. People v. Clark (1967), 5 Mich App 672. "Manslaughter" is the unlawful killing of another without malice, express or implied. People v. Clark, supra.
The various degrees of homicide were defined only to enable the jury to reach an intelligent verdict ; the trial judge told them as much. They were never instructed that they could find the defendant guilty of any of the higher crimes, and his claim of a "compromised verdict" is unpersuasive.
The conviction is affirmed.
Y. J. Brennan, P. J., concurred.
MCLA § 750.321 (Stat Ann 1954 Rev § 28.553).
MCLA § 750.316 (Stat Ann 1954 Rev § 28.548).
MCLA § 750.317 (Stat Ann 1954 Rev § 28.549).