Opinion ID: 1330634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Propriety of Second-Degree-Murder Instruction.

Text: Justus now contends the jury should have been instructed that it could return a verdict of murder in the second degree. Although he did not proffer a second-degreemurder instruction, citing Ball v. Commonwealth, 221 Va. 754, 273 S.E.2d 790 (1981), he urges this court to consider the issue to attain the ends of justice. Rule 5:21. Ball, however, affords Justus no support. We emploved the saviner clause of Rule 5:21 there in order to consider an instruction granted without objection. But that instruction permitted a capital verdict when the evidence failed to show the commission of a capital offense. Here, as indicated in Part VIII, supra, the evidence was sufficient to support a capital verdict. Furthermore, in Ball, the accused proffered and was refused an instruction on second-degree murder. We held the refusal was not error because there was no evidence to support a finding of second-degree murder. The rule followed in Ball is that a second-degree-murder instruction is appropriate only where there is evidence to support it, Painter v. Commonwealth, 210 Va. 360, 367, 171 S.E.2d 166, 171 (1969), Wooden v. Commonwealth, 208 Va. 629, 634, 159 S.E.2d 623, 627 (1968), and the evidence must amount to more than a scintilla, Hatcher v. Commonwealth, 218 Va. 811, 814, 241 S.E.2d 756, 758 (1978). These principles apply in both capital and non-capital cases. [2] Linwood Earl Briley v. Commonwealth, 221 Va. 532, 541, 273 S.E.2d 48, 54 (1980). Here, the only real issue before the jury was whether Justus was guilty of capital murder or first-degree murder. The evidence did not support a second-degree-murder instruction. Hence, even if the point had been preserved for appeal, the result would have been adverse to Justus.