Court Opinion

ID: 9575252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:12:34.579414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:41.550961
License: Public Domain

Shepherd, P.J.
(concurring). I concur in the result but I believe that defendant did not receive effective assistance of counsel. Once we conclude that there should have been an instruction on involuntary manslaughter and on the right to resist rape, it seems to me to follow that the failure of counsel to request such instructions was serious enough to warrant placing a portion of the blame in this case where it belongs, i.e., on the failure of counsel to adequately represent the defendant. This is especially so when we recognize that the defendant was a prostitute and that it is unlikely that a jury, without being adequately instructed, would independently come to the conclusion that a customer who refused to pay a prostitute is guilty of rape if he forces his sexual desires upon a now unwilling woman.
Although I agree that the trial judge had an obligation to give proper instructions even though they were not requested, in a case where a failure to give them was clearly prejudicial, I believe it is important to emphasize that, as between the trial judge and trial counsel, the greater blame falls upon counsel who failed to protect his client and perform his obligations toward the court.