Case Name: PEOPLE v. CONWAY; PEOPLE v. LAWRENCE
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1976-08-23
Citations: 70 Mich. App. 629
Docket Number: Docket Nos. 21527, 21528
Parties: PEOPLE v CONWAY PEOPLE v LAWRENCE
Judges: Before: R. B. Burns, P. J., and M. J. Kelly and S. S. Hughes, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 70
Pages: 629–633

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v CONWAY PEOPLE v LAWRENCE
Opinion of the Court
1. Homicide — Malice—Deadly Weapon — Inferences—Presumptions.
Malice is a permissible inference that may be drawn by a jury where a deadly weapon has been used and is not a presumption of law; therefore, a defendant’s conviction will be reversed where a trial judge instructed the jury that the law presumes that a person intended to take life when he assaults another with a deadly weapon in such a manner that the natural and ordinary probable use of such deadly weapon in such a manner would take life.
Dissent by M. J. Kelly, J.
2. Appeal and Error — Instructions to Jury — Failure to Object— Manifest Injustice.
Errors in a trial judge’s instructions to a jury which are not objected to are not subject to appellate review unless the errors rise to such proportions as to reasonably amount to serious error causing manifest injustice.
3. Homicide — Instructions to Jury — Presumptions—Intent to Take Life — Manifest Injustice — Failure to Object.
Manifest injustice has not occurred where a trial court’s instructions to the jury, when viewed in their entirety, were not so misleading as to deny the defendants their right to a fair trial; therefore, the lower court’s convictions of the defendants should be upheld in light of the defendants’ failure to object in a murder trial to the trial judge’s improper instruction that the law presumes an intent to take life under the circumstances recited.
References for Points in Headnotes
[1] 6 Am Jur 2d, Assault and Battery §§ 51, 53.
5 Am Jur 2d, Appeal and Error §§ 891, 892.
Appeal from Kent, John H. Vander Wal, J.
Submitted June 8, 1976, at Grand Rapids.
(Docket Nos. 21527, 21528.)
Decided August 23, 1976.
Lionel Conway and Lee W. Lawrence, Jr., were convicted of first-degree murder. Defendants appeal.
Reversed and remanded.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, Harold S. Sawyer, Prosecuting Attorney, and Craig S. Neckers, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
John B. Phelps, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for defendant.
Before: R. B. Burns, P. J., and M. J. Kelly and S. S. Hughes, JJ.
Former circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment pursuant to Const Í963, art 6, § 23 as amended in 1968.

Opinion:
R. B. Burns, P. J.
Defendants were convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, contrary to MCLA 750.316; MSA 28.548. They appeal and we reverse.
The trial judge instructed the jury in part:
"When a man assaults another with a deadly weapon, and a gun is a deadly weapon, in such a manner that the natural and ordinary probable use of such deadly weapon, in such a manner would take life, the law presumes that such a person so assaulting, intended to take life."(Emphasis added.)
People v Martin, 392 Mich 553, 561; 221 NW2d 336, 340 (1974), followed in People v Lyles, 67 Mich App 620; 242 NW2d 452 (1976), clearly indicates such an instruction is error:
"The law does not imply malice where a deadly weapon is used. Michigan has long ago considered malice a permissible inference to be drawn by the jury rather than a presumption of law."
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.
S. S. Hughes, J., concurred.