Opinion ID: 2263311
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The trial judge allegedly erred by denying a Lesser Included Offense Instruction.

Text: Miller requested that the trial judge instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree. Miller suggested that, based on his statements to the police that he could only recall that he may have hugged or rubbed his daughter, a rational jury could have found him guilty of the lesser included offense of Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree. The trial judge disagreed and ruled that there was no basis in the record to convict Miller of the lesser included offense because hugging or rubbing another are not crimes in Delaware. The prosecution or the defense is entitled to a lesser included offense instruction if the crime not charged is in fact a lesser-included offense, and if there is a rational basis in the evidence to convict the defendant of the lesser crime rather than the greater. [39] Both parties agree that Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree is a lesser included offense of Rape First Degree. The parties disagree about whether there was a rational basis in the record to convict Miller of Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree. We review de novo Miller's claim that there was a rational basis for the requested instruction. [40] We conclude that there was no rational basis in the evidence to support a charge of Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree. The victim testified that Miller raped her vaginally, orally, and anally numerous times over several years. Miller, in his statement to the police, denied all of the victim's allegations, and stated that he had occasionally hugged or rubbed his daughter in bed. Based on these two accounts, the jury could have found that Miller raped his daughter numerous times or hugged or rubbed her. However, the trial judge found that neither hugging nor rubbing are crimes in Delaware. Therefore, the trial judge properly denied Miller's request for an instruction on Unlawful Sexual Contact Second Degree because the facts support only the crime of Rape First Degree.