State v. Banks

Petree, Judge.

Defendant, Johnnie Lee Banks, appeals from his conviction and sentence for the murder of Nathaniel Poellnitz. In this appeal, he contends that the trial court incorrectly instructed the jury with respect to his prior conviction for voluntary manslaughter, that his conviction is unsupported by sufficient evidence and is against the manifest weight of the evidence, and that he was denied effective assistance of counsel. Because we agree that the trial court erroneously instructed the jury that it could consider defendant’s prior conviction as bearing upon his guilt on the instant…