Opinion ID: 2174661
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: grant's requested instruction

Text: First, we address the State's position that a trial court's refusal to give an orally requested instruction cannot be reviewed on appeal because § 25-1111 directs that all requested jury instructions shall be written. In State v. Hegwood, 202 Neb. 379, 275 N.W.2d 605 (1979), a robbery case, defense counsel, during a conference on instructions, orally requested an instruction on larceny as a lesser-included offense of robbery. The court refused to give the larceny instruction. Hegwood was convicted of robbery and appealed to this court, which stated: The trial court in this case knew exactly what defense counsel was requesting and denied the request on the trial court's understanding of the law. To have required, in addition to this presentation directly to the trial court, that the refused instruction be reduced to writing would be a meaningless triumph of form over substance. We do not so hold. The defendant made a proper request to the court for a lesser-included offense instruction. The instruction was warranted. The trial court refused to do so. This was error and requires reversal. 202 Neb. at 383, 275 N.W.2d at 608. See, also, State v. Samuels, 205 Neb. 585, 289 N.W.2d 183 (1980) (pursuant to a prosecutor's oral request, a trial court may properly give a clarifying instruction concerning circumstantial evidence). Cf. Stoco, Inc. v. Madison's, Inc., 235 Neb. 305, 454 N.W.2d 692 (1990) (an appellate court will not review a trial court's ruling on instructions when the instructions are absent from the record). Thus, although § 25-1111 directs that a requested instruction be written, when the record demonstrates that a trial court understood the nature of the orally requested jury instruction, an appellate court may review the trial court's refusal to give the orally requested instruction. See, State v. Samuels, supra ; State v. Hegwood, supra . During the instruction conference in Grant's trial, as unmistakably reflected in the bill of exceptions as a part of the record, defense counsel orally, but clearly, requested that the jury be instructed concerning the offense of illegal possession of cocaine, a crime prohibited by § 28-416(3). Also, in referring to the propriety of an instruction on illegal possession of cocaine as a lesser-included offense of unlawful delivery of cocaine, the trial court manifested a clear-cut understanding of the orally requested instruction. Under the circumstances, we are presented with a record that enables us to review the correctness of the trial court's refusal to instruct on illegal possession of cocaine as a lesser-included offense of delivering cocaine.