Opinion ID: 2189436
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: applicable law with respect to jury instructions

Text: In People v Dye, 356 Mich 271, 279; 96 NW2d 788 (1959), cert den 361 US 935 (1960), we enunciated the standard under which we review jury instructions. We stated that it was improper for the appellant to extract several short excerpts from the entire context of the charge and discuss[ed] their claimed inadequacies at great length. Jury instructions in a criminal case .. . must be read in their entirety. See, also, People v Dupie, 395 Mich 483, 488-489; 236 NW2d 494 (1975). Numerous Court of Appeals decisions have also quite properly focused on the totality of the instructions given. See, e.g., People v Ritsema, 105 Mich App 602, 609-610; 307 NW2d 380 (1981); People v Bailey, 103 Mich App 619, 626; 302 NW2d 924 (1981); People v Choate, 88 Mich App 40, 45; 276 NW2d 862 (1979). The Supreme Court of the United States has similarly stated: In determining the effect of this instruction on the validity of respondent's conviction, we accept at the outset the well-established proposition that a single instruction to a jury may not be judged in artificial isolation, but must be viewed in the context of the overall charge. Boyd v United States, 271 US 104, 107 [46 S Ct 442; 70 L Ed 857] (1926).... [A] judgment of conviction is commonly the culmination of a trial which includes testimony of witnesses, argument of counsel, receipt of exhibits in evidence, and instruction of the jury by the judge. Thus not only is the challenged instruction but one of many such instructions, but the process of instruction itself is but one of several components of the trial which may result in the judgment of conviction.... [T]he question is not whether the trial court failed to isolate and cure a particular ailing instruction, but rather whether the ailing instruction by itself so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process. [ Cupp v Naughten, 414 US 141, 146-147; 94 S Ct 396; 38 L Ed 2d 368 (1973).] See, also, United States v LaRiche, 549 F2d 1088, 1093-1094 (CA 6, 1977), cert den 434 US 966 (1977) (quoting Cupp for the proposition that particular instructions must be viewed within the context of the entire charge).
This Court has stated that instructional error should not be considered on appeal unless the issue has been preserved by an objection to the instruction in the trial court. People v Handley, 415 Mich 356, 360; 329 NW2d 710 (1982). Relief will be granted absent an objection only in cases of manifest injustice. See, e.g., People v Woods, 416 Mich 581, 610; 331 NW2d 707 (1982); People v Rand, 397 Mich 638, 643; 247 NW2d 508 (1976); People v Townes, 391 Mich 578, 586; 218 NW2d 136 (1974). The United States Supreme Court has enunciated a similar test. It stated that [i]t is the rare case in which an improper instruction will justify reversal of a criminal conviction when no objection has been made in the trial court. Henderson v Kibbe, 431 US 145, 154; 97 S Ct 1730; 52 L Ed 2d 203 (1976). Relief will be given only when necessary to avoid manifest injustice to the defendant. [3]