State v. Grunow

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

Defendant was tried to a jury for capital murder. The jury acquitted the defendant of murder but convicted him of aggravated manslaughter. On appeal, the Appellate Division reversed the conviction because the instructions to the jury impermissibly shifted the burden of proof to defendant to establish that the act was “committed in the heat of passion resulting from a reasonable provocation” (N.J.S.A. 2C:11—4(b)(2)) so as to reduce murder to manslaughter. 199 N.J.Super. 241, 246-49 (1985). (For convenience, hereafter we refer to this statutory…