State v. Potter

HALL, Justice:

(dissenting).

Jury instructions are to be considered and construed as a whole and reconciled whenever possible;1 conversely, they are not to be considered in isolation in order to predicate a claim of error.2 In the instant case, the court specifically instructed the jury (Instruction No. 22) to consider and construe the instructions as one connected whole. It is presumed that the jury read and followed all of the court’s instructions.3

In determining the sufficiency of instructions, each must be considered in conjunction will all of the others, and when taken as a whole they…