State v. Chapland

A jury convicted defendant Wayne Chapland of first-degree robbery for a purse-snatching incident in which he simulated possession of a deadly weapon. The Appellate Division reversed the conviction because it found that the jury instruction on simulated possession of a weapon failed to convey that the jury was required to acquit defendant if it accepted his version of what took place. Defendant conceded that he snatched the purse but claimed that he neither had a weapon nor threatened the victim with anything that simulated a weapon.

According to the panel, in a simulated-possession case the…