Rorie v. United States

REID, Associate Judge:

Appellant Cornell A. Rorie was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder while armed (knife), in violation of D.C.Code § 22-2403, -3202 (1996), 1 but was convicted by a jury of the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter while armed. He contends primarily that the trial court committed reversible error by giving the jury a “first aggressor” or provocation charge, because “[n]o evidence showed that Mr. Rorie either verbally or physically provoked [the decedent] in the moments before the [fatal] incident.” We hold that in giving the challenged instruction to…