Shields v. State

Because I believe that the trial court erred in its charge to the jury regarding the effect of the victim’s infidelity on Shields’ state of mind at the time of the shooting,5 I must respectfully dissent.

1. In Ricketts v. State, 276 Ga. 466 (579 SE2d 205) (2003), this Court upheld the use of a jury instruction on adultery almost verbatim to that given here. The charge given in Ricketts was modeled after the Suggested Pattern Jury Instructions in effect at that time, which stated, in pertinent part:

To kill either a spouse or the spouse’s lover for past acts of adultery or to prevent the…