Over 100 convictions reversed over faulty jury instructions on manslaughter
Over the course of 15 years, Florida lawyers sometimes wondered about a discrepancy between the state’s legal definition of the crime of manslaughter and what standard form jury instructions said.
But not until 2009 did Richard Summa, a public defender in Tallahassee, argue the issue on appeal. The result was a new trial for his client, Steven Montgomery, when the state supreme court agreed that the jury instructions were a fundamental error, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
By incorrectly requiring the jury to find intent in order to convict defendants of manslaughter, the erroneous instructions made it easier to convict defendants of second-degree murder or attempted second-degree murder. Those crimes do not require intent, either, which the jury instructions made clear, the article explains.
Others soon followed the trail blazed by Summa that led to the reversal of Montgomery’s conviction in 2010, and at least 103 people have won new trials on that basis.
For a significant number of defendants, that has resulted in second convictions but lighter sentences, often because of plea bargaining. However, a few defendants wound up with harsher sentences. Among them is Montgomery, the Times reports: He was convicted again of second-degree murder and sentenced to a life term. His initial sentence for the crime was 45 years.
