NEAL ALFONZA STILLS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Neal Alfonza Stills was convicted of second-degree murder after being charged with first-degree murder. The Florida appellate court reversed the conviction because the trial court erroneously refused to re-instruct the jury on justifiable homicide and self-defense when the jury requested a repetition of instructions on the degrees of murder, leaving the jury with incomplete and potentially misleading instructions.
The trial court committed reversible error. When a trial court repeats instructions on degrees of homicide at a jury's request, it must also include related instructions on justifiable and excusable homicide, as omitting these creates an incomplete and potentially misleading instruction.
[1] When a jury requests a repetition of instructions on degrees of unlawful homicide, the trial court must also include instructions on justifiable and excusable homicide if…
[2] Failure to provide a complete set of relevant jury instructions upon request can result in an incomplete and potentially misleading charge.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“In the instant case when the judge repeated his charges on degrees of homicide he should have included the requested definitions of justifiable and excusable homicide. Failure to do so erroneously left with the jury an incomplete, and, potentially misleading instruction.”
The Supreme Court of Florida's holding in Hedges v. State establishing that omitting justifiable and excusable homicide instructions when repeating homicide degree instructions violates the defendant's rights.
Previewing 1 of 2 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceStills entered a confectionery store in Jacksonville and shot Bates with a shotgun. Testimony conflicted on details, with some evidence showing that t…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Justifiable Homicide cases and more on FLexlaw
The appellant-defendant was charged with first degree murder and convicted of second degree murder by the Circuit Court for Duval County and has appealed from his judgment of conviction and sentence.
The principal question presented for our determination in this appeal is whether the trial court committed reversible error in denying the defendant’s request to include that portion of the court’s instructions relating to justifiable homicide and self-defense when that court repeated, at the jury’s request, that portion of the instructions pertaining to lesser included offenses to murder in the first degree.
The defendant was charged by indictment with having unlawfully killed one Bates, with a premeditated design, by shooting him with a shotgun. The evidence adduced at the trial showed that on the date in question the defendant entered a small confectionery store in Jacksonville, Florida, exchanged some words with Bates, and then shot him. The testimony was in conflict as to some of the details of the incident. For instance, some of the testimony was to the effect that two days before, the defendant had been hit with a pistol, shot at, and threatened by Bates and that Bates had a reputation in the community as being a man of violence.
At the end of the trial the court initially instructed the jury on all of the degrees of unlawful homicide and also on justifiable and excusable homicide. After the jury had deliberated for about one-and-a-half hours, a juror stated to the court that the jury would like the court to read the instructions on first and second degree murder.
The defense counsel then asked the court to give the instruction as to self-defense at the time of the repeated instructions on first and second degree murder, and objected when the court failed to give the requested instruction along with the instructions on first and second degree murder.
In support of his contention in this appeal, the defendant cites, and relies heavily upon, the decision of the Supreme Court of Florida in Hedges v. State, 172 So.2d 824 (Fla.1965).
The situation in the Hedges case was analogous to that in the case at bar. In Hedges the question before the court was, in the words of Mr. Justice Thornal, speaking for the Supreme Court, whether a charge defining degree of homicide should also include a definition of excusable and justifiable homicide.
In the Hedges case, supra, the defendant was indicted for first degree murder and was convicted of manslaughter. As in the case at bar, the trial court initially instructed the jury on all the degrees of unlawful homicide and also on justifiable and excusable homicide. After some deliberation a juror requested that the trial court repeat its instructions on the degrees of unlawful homicide. The court repeated its said instructions but denied the defense counsel’s request to include therein the charges on justifiable and excusable homicide. The Supreme Court said:
“The judge had the view that since the jury requested only the charges on degrees of homicide, he had no obligation to repeat his charge on justifiable and excusable homicide.”
The Supreme Court then held that the trial judge’s said view was in error and reversed the judgment of conviction for a new trial. The Supreme Court’s “ratio de-cidendi” was set forth by the Supreme Court as follows:
“In the instant case when the judge repeated his charges on degrees of homicide he should have included the request*176ed definitions of justifiable and excusable homicide. Failure to do so erroneously left with the jury an incomplete, and, potentially misleading instruction.” Bagley v. State, 119 So.2d 400 (Fla.App.1960), McCray v. State, 89 Fla. 65, 102 So.2d 831 (Fla.1925).
Upon the authority of the Hedges’ decision, the judgment appealed from herein must be, and it is, reversed, and the cause is remanded with directions for a new trial.
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.
SPECTOR, C. J., and RAWLS, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Henry v. State, 359 So. 2d 864 (Fla. 1978)…is answered in the negative and the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, is approved. It is so ordered. OVERTON, C. J., and BOYD, ENGLAND and HATCHETT, JJ., concur. . 350 So. 2d 512 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977) . In Stills v. State, 272 So. 2d 174 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973), the District Court of Appeal, First District, was presented with a situation closely analogous to the case sub judice. The court relied on Hedges v. State, supra, in reversing the trial judge because he did not reinstruct the ju…
-
Bristow v. State, 338 So. 2d 553 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976)…ated charges should be complete on the subject involved and that the giving of the partial instruction failed to inform the jury fully and could lead to undue emphasis to the part given to the detriment of the part omitted. See also Stills v. State, 272 So. 2d 174 (Fla.lst DCA 1973). One of the dangers inherent in a partial instruction is the possibility of misleading the jury. It is the appellant’s argument that a partial instruction on self-defense is [*556] potentially even more misleading than no instruc…
-
Dykman v. State, 300 So. 2d 695 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974)…ond and third degrees, as well as on manslaughter. The appellant objected and urged that the complete instructions to the jury be read under the rule stated in Hedges v. State, Fla. 1965, 172 So. 2d 824, and applied in Stills v. State, Fla.App.1973, 272 So. 2d 174 and Tamayo v. State, Fla. App.1970, 237 So. 2d 251. After the jury had been in the jury room for approximately five minutes, it was recalled by the trial court for the purpose of repeating the remainder of the instructions. It was established by tes…
Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Whitney v. Colonial INN, 172 So. 2d 824 (Fla. 1965)
- Lelia Padgett Bagley v. State, 119 So. 2d 400 (Fla. 1st DCA 1960)
- McCray v. State, 89 Fla. 65 (Fla. 1925)
- Shiver's Super Store & Am. Hardware Mut. Ins. Co. v. Fla. Indus. Comm'n & Fla. Indus. Comm'n Acting, 102 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 3d DCA 1958)