Court Opinion

ID: 9795701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:36:35.719839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:34:00.842553
License: Public Domain

Johnson, J.,
concurring: I agree with the majority’s result, including its assessment that the failure to give an instruction on involuntary manslaughter while committing a misdemeanor was not clearly erroneous. I do not have a firm conviction that there was a real possibility that the jury would have returned a different verdict if that instruction had been given. The jury was presented with and rejected a number of other lesser included offense options, including reckless involuntary manslaughter.
Moreover, I find Hoffman’s theory that he entered the house the second time with the intent to commit simple misdemeanor battery to be a stretch of one’s imagination. He and Wood administered a rather severe beating during the first visit. I cannot see a rational jury believing that Hoffman’s stated purpose to “beat him up some more” manifested an intent to merely touch Morton “in a rude, insulting, or angry manner.” K.S.A. 21-3412(2) (simple battery).
I write separately to reiterate my concerns about the special rule for lesser included offense instructions in felony-murder cases, which focuses on the strength of the evidence to support the charged crime, rather than the strength of the evidence to support *111the proposed lesser included offense. See State v. Jones, 287 Kan. 547, 198 P.3d 756 (2008) (Johnson, J., concurring).
McFarland, C.J., not participating.
Hill, J., assigned.