State v. Nichols

OPINION

in which ANDERSON, C.J., and DROWOTA, HOLDER, and BARKER, JJ., joined.

We granted this appeal to determine whether the jury instruction given pursuant to a previous version of Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-201(b) during the guilt phase of the trial of James C. Nichols, the defendant, violated his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and under Article I, § 8 of the Tennessee Constitution. We consider also whether the evidence is sufficient, as a matter of law, to support Nichols’s conviction for first degree murder. We hold that the jury…