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Crawford v. State10/20/2005
cation unless that principle of law is fully, accurately, and expressly stated in the other instructions. When some evidence in a murder prosecution implicates the crime of voluntary manslaughter, no matter how weak or incredible that evidence may be, the defendant is entitled upon request to an instruction specifically advising the jury that the burden is on the State to prove that the defendant did not act in the heat of passion with the requisite legal provocation.
Incomplete Aspects of the Proposed Instruction
We emphasize, however, that we do not hold that Crawford was entitled to the verbatim "heat of passion" instruction he requested. As we explain with particularity in Carter, the conclusion that district courts must provide instructions upon request incorporating the significance of a defendant's theory of the defense does not mean that the defendant is entitled to instructions that are misleading, inaccurate, or duplicitous. Rather, where a defendant's proposed instruction is poorly drafted, but nonetheless proposes a defense theory of the case instruction that should be given, the State may request additional, clarifying language more fully explicating the principles of law applicable to the jury's deliberations. And in the final analysis, the district court is ultimately responsible for not only assuring that the substance of the defendant's requested instruction is provided to the jury, but that the jury is otherwise fully and correctly instructed. In this, the district court may either assist the parties in crafting the required instructions or may complete the instructions sua sponte. By way of example, we note that Crawford's proposed "heat of passion" instruction invited further refinement by the State and the district court in at least two significant respects.
First, Crawford's proposed language referred only to "heat of passion" and contained no language defining the State's burden to prove the absence of provocation involved in the crime of voluntary manslaughter. The State should have sought and the district court should have completed the requested instruction with additional, clarifying language explaining that the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in the heat of passion caused by the requisite legal provocation.
Second, Crawford's proposed "heat of passion" instruction did not adequately define the jury's obligations under the two alternative theories of first-degree murder alleged by the State. As we noted above, the jury was correctly instructed that as long as all of the jurors were unanimous in finding that Crawford committed first-degree murder, jury unanimity was not required as to whether that charge was established under a theory of willful, deliberate, premeditated murder or a theory of felony murder. As we also noted above, with respect to the theory of felony murder, the jury was correctly instructed that a "killing which is committed in the perpetration of a Burglary is deemed to be Murder in the First Degree, whether the killing was intentional or unintentional or accidental."
Thus, Crawford's proposed "heat of passion" instruction had relevance only to the State's theory of willful, deliberate, and premeditated first-degree murder and provided no explanation of the jury's obligations with respect to the State's alternative theory of first-degree felony murder. In order to accurately and fully complement the proposed instruction, the State should have requested and the district court should have included language distinguishing the jury's obligations under these separate theories. More specifically, the State's burden with respect to the element of malice aforethoug
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