Court Opinion

ID: 9700812
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:50:06.178621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:14.742616
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur with everything in the majority writing as it relates to legal test analysis. I further agree wholeheartedly that “there is evidence to support Black’s requested lesser offense instruction.” I part company with the majority, however, when it jumps into the jury box to hold that the jury would have convicted Black only as to the offense charged. I base this dissent on my previous dissent in Black I. Therein, I relied on People v. Shaw, 646 P.2d 375 (Colo.1982), which stated:
“We do not say that [manslaughter] should have been the verdict, or that the jury would have found differently had they been properly instructed. What we do say is that there was not an entire absence of evidence tending to establish the crime of manslaughter, and that defendant was entitled to an instruction with reference thereto. It is obviously impossible for us to hold that the error thus committed was without prejudice.”
Id. at 379 (quoting Crawford v. People, 20 P. 769, 770-71 (Colo.1888)). Likewise, it was prejudicial to deprive Black of his lesser instruction on manslaughter.
The majority agrees that Black was entitled to a manslaughter instruction but then goes a step further and finds as a fact that the jury, if given the opportunity to consider the lesser included instruction, would have still convicted Black of first-degree murder. If conflicts in evidence exist and credibility of witnesses needs to be determined, which is the case here in view of Black’s testimony, it is the jury’s role to make the factual findings on such matters. State v. Wooley, 461 N.W.2d 117 (S.D.1990); State v. Gallipo, 460 N.W.2d 739 (S.D.1990); State v. Peck, 459 N.W.2d 441 (S.D.1990).
Whether evidence is overwhelming or not, the jury must decide whether or not the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable *746doubt and neither a trial judge nor this court should assume such a role. United States v. White Horse, 807 F.2d 1426 (8th Cir.1986). I cannot assume, nor will I assume, the role of a juror in this case. Therefore, I would remand this ease back for retrial so that a jury can consider the case with a manslaughter instruction. Then, the jury can perform its role of determining the facts and apply the law to those facts.