State v. Berney

I fully join the court’s opinion, but I wish to add a few comments to explain my understanding of the standard now applied in Kansas to determine whether a jury instruction was clearly erroneous. The clearly erroneous test applies when the defendant does not object to the instructions given by the trial court.

In our opinion, we have applied the standard our Supreme Court announced in State v. Williams, 295 Kan. 506, 286 P.3d 195 (2012). The Williams court said that we may reverse for clear error only when we are “firmly convinced that the juiy would have reached *730a different verdict had the…