Court Opinion

ID: 9529502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:51:31.015864+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:49.816886
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE O’MARA FROSSARD, specially concurring on Taylor’s appeal: The defense argues that the jury should have received instructions on involuntary manslaughter and second degree murder. While I concur with the majority’s resolution of the jury instruction issue, I believe the reliance by the majority on the analysis used in People v. Rixie was unnecessary. The issue in this case regarding jury instruction is resolved by reviewing the evidence. The majority undertakes such review and based on the record properly concludes the evidence did not warrant giving the jury these instructions. I agree with this conclusion and the analysis should end there. I agree with the majority’s holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to give Taylor’s second degree murder provocation instruction because Taylor did not present sufficient evidence to warrant giving that instruction. Specifically, the record does not contain evidence that Taylor was acting under a sudden and intense passion resulting from a serious provocation at the time Taylor beat the victim. I also agree with the holding of the majority that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to give Taylor’s second degree murder instruction based upon his unreasonable belief in the need for self-defense. The record did not reflect sufficient evidence to warrant giving the jury that instruction. However, I disagree with the majority’s reliance on the Rixie approach because such reliance tends to lend approval to the prosecution gamesmanship condoned by the court in Rixie, where the prosecution was allowed to limit jury instruction to only the charge of felony murder by deciding to nol-pros the charge of first degree murder after evidence had been heard by the jury on the charge of first degree murder and after the court agreed to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offenses of murder. Rixie, 190 Ill. App. 3d at 825. In Rixie, the court as the result of evidence heard at trial agreed to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offenses of murder based on the first degree murder charge. Following the initial instruction conference and upon learning of the court’s intention to instruct on the lesser-included offenses, the State was allowed to dismiss the first degree murder charge. The court then refused to instruct on the lesser-included offenses of murder but instructed the jury on felony murder only. The jury was thereby limited to finding the defendant guilty or not guilty of felony murder. Once the charges are brought and evidence is presented and as a result of those charges and evidence the record reflects that instruction on a lesser-included offense is warranted by the evidence, I believe fundamental fairness requires that a prosecution motion to dismiss the charges that provide the basis for the lesser-included offense instruction should be denied and instruction on the lesser-included offense should be given. Where there is sufficient evidence to support an instruction to the jury on a lesser-mitigated offense, yet the trial court denies the jury the opportunity to return a verdict of guilty on that mitigated offense, such denial contributes to the likelihood of not only inaccurate, but substantially unfair, jury verdicts.