Opinion ID: 2304700
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Chance's Contentions

Text: Chance's first contention is that the Superior Court committed plain error in instructing the jury that, if it found a principal-accomplice relationship existed between the participants with respect to a particular unlawful act, the jury was not required thereafter to find that he specifically intended the result of a consequential crime which occurs. In this case, that portion of the charge to the Chance jury stated: It is the law that all persons who join together with a common intent and purpose to commit an unlawful act which, in itself, makes it foreseeable that a crime not specifically agreed upon in advance might be committed, are responsible equally as principals for the commission of such an incidental or consequential crime, whenever the second crime is one in furtherance of or in aid to the originally contemplated unlawful act. Chance acknowledges that the foregoing instruction is appropriate where there is both an underlying crime and a consequential crime, such as a felony-murder scenario. See Claudio v. State, Del.Supr., 585 A.2d 1278, 1281-82 (1991). Chance argues, however, that this instruction is inappropriate in his case because the assault would merge into the homicide. Chance's second contention is that the Superior Court erred in failing to instruct the jury that it must determine Chance's personal mental culpability pursuant to Section 274. Section 274 provides: