People v. Moye

Opinion

BAXTER, J.

Defendant, who bludgeoned his victim to death with a baseball bat, was convicted of second degree murder. The jury was instructed on, and rejected, both a justifiable homicide defense based on reasonable self-defense, and unreasonable or imperfect self-defense, which would have supported conviction of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter. The trial court refused a defense request to further instruct the jury on a sudden quarrel/heat of passion theory of voluntary manslaughter. The Court of Appeal disagreed with this ruling, found the instructional error…