Overby v. State

Gilbert, Justice.

Movant complains that the court erred in charging the jury as follows: “I charge you that there are three verdicts that you may write in this case: First, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty; and if you stop there, the penalty will be death. Or, second, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty and recommend mercy, in which event the punishment would be life imprisonment. Or, we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty.” The criticisms are that the charge “was not sound as an abstract principle of law;” that the charge was argumentative in that it instructed the jury that…