Opinion ID: 1599368
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: harmless error argument

Text: In a last-ditch effort, the State contends that any error in instruction No. 6 was harmless because the court's other instructions informed the jury that the State was required to prove that Jasper knew about the shotgun's presence within the trunk of the vehicle which he was driving. As previously mentioned, however, all instructions, when read together, must not mislead the jury and must correctly state the law. State v. Harney, supra ; State v. Pierce, 231 Neb. 966, 439 N.W.2d 435 (1989). Directly contradictory instructions obviously have the very real likelihood of misleading a jury. Instruction No. 6 incorrectly expressed the law and authorized the jury to disregard the presumption of Jasper's innocence and the State's burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt each element of the possessory crime charged against Jasper. Because instruction No. 6 quite likely influenced the jury in its verdict, which is constitutionally suspect as a deprivation or denial of Jasper's due process right to a fair trial, we cannot conclude that the error was harmless.