State v. Ryan

PRITCHARD, Judge.

By the verdict of a jury appellant was convicted of the commission of the crime of murder in the second degree of one Glen Stumbo. The jury was unable to agree upon the punishment and the court fixed the same at 30 years imprisonment in the Department of Corrections.

The main issue presented is whether the court should have included in the murder in the second degree Instruction No. 4 a finding for the jury upon the subject of provocation in accordance with the paragraph thereon in the pattern instructions prepared in 1971 by the Committee of the Missouri Jury Instructions —…