State v. Maumalanga

Opinion of the Court by

LEVINSON, J.

We issued a writ of certiorari to review the decision of the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) in State v. Maumalanga, 90 Hawai'i 96, 976 P.2d 410 (App.1998) [hereinafter, the “ICA’s opinion”]. In his application for a writ of certiorari, Maumalanga asserts that (1) the ICA (a) improperly held that common-law “considerations” may be incorporated into the choice of evils defense set forth in Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 703-302 (1993) 1 and (b) having determined that an erroneous choice of evils instruction had been given, erred in holding that there was…