Morris v. State

Robert L. Brown, Justice.

Appellant Calvin Morris was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to forty years in prison. He appeals on the basis that the circuit court erroneously refused to instruct the jury on second-degree murder and manslaughter. We agree that the circuit court erred in not giving an instruction on second-degree murder, but we affirm the court’s refusal to instruct on manslaughter.

During the evening hours of November 26, 1999, Morris and a friend, Daniel Fells, were leaving a nightclub in Little Rock called Elevations and walking towards Morris’s car when a second…