People v. Morrin

Leslie Taylor Morrin was convicted of first-degree murder 1 by a jury in Monroe County Circuit Court. At the trial he testified that he killed the victim in self-defense. His evidence, coupled with the jury’s unquestioned right to reject the claim of self-defense, provided sufficient evidence to sustain a verdict finding that he committed the crime of second-degree murder by killing another human being with malice aforethought. 2

The statutory offense of which Morrin was convicted was, however, first-degree, not second-degree, murder. Although evidence that a homicide was committed with malice…