People v. Shields

We granted the People’s petition for cer-tiorari to review the decision of the Colorado Court of Appeals in People v. Shields, 805 P.2d 1140 (Colo.App.1990), in which the court overturned the first-degree sexual assault conviction of the defendant, Bruce Timothy Shields. The court of appeals held that the instruction given at trial on the offense of second-degree sexual assault was infirm because it did not clearly distinguish between that crime and first-degree sexual assault. The court also held that the trial court’s failure to respond to a question submitted by the jury during…