Ross v. State

I concur in the result reached by the majority, but write separately to clarify why I think the post-conviction court properly concluded that Ross’s counsel was not deficient based on counsel’s failure to object to the trial court’s instruction on voluntary manslaughter.

Prior to Ross’s trial in October 2001, our supreme court’s opinion in Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563, 566-67 (Ind.1995), established a three-step process a trial court must undertake to determine whether to give a proposed instruction on a lesser offense. The first step is the important one here; it provides that the trial…