People v. Vail

Defendant, George Herbert Vail, was charged with first-degree murder 1 for his participation in a shooting incident which caused the death of David Rivas. Tried in Oakland County Circuit Court, defendant was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter by a jury on June 16, 1970 and he was later sentenced to a prison term of 7-1/2 to 15 years. His appeal to the Court of Appeals 2 resulted in affirmance on September 25, 1973. This Court granted the defendant’s application for leave to appeal on March 21, 1974. 3

As we are convinced that the trial court was in error for instructing the jury to…