State v. Lee Funderburg (074760)

This appeal presents the question of whether, in the context of a jury trial for first-degree attempted murder, a trial court erred by failing to charge the jury sua sponte on the lesser-included offense of attempted passion/provocation manslaughter.

The facts in this appeal were established at trial. Defendant Lee Funderburg and Terra Andrews had previously been in a romantic relationship, and they continued to share parenting responsibilities for their two-year-old son even after they stopped dating. Funderburg had a tense relationship with Andrews’s new boyfriend, Leno Parham, and they had…