Miner v. State, S97A0486
| Decision Date | 28 April 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. S97A0486,S97A0486 |
| Citation | 485 S.E.2d 456,268 Ga. 67 |
| Parties | , 97 FCDR 1442 MINER v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Harold Julian Choate, III, White & Choate, Cartersville, for Ira Odell Miner.
Patricia Beth Attaway, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Law, Atlanta, Paula K. Smith, Senior, Asst. Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Lance T. McCoy, Asst. Dist. Atty., Cherokee Judicial Circuit, Cartersville, for State.
Ira Odell Miner was indicted on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault arising out of the stabbing death of Wesley Moore. Miner was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. 1 He appeals and we affirm.
1. A jury was authorized to find that on the morning of August 19, 1995 Miner, Moore and several friends were drinking heavily outside Moore's home. Miner, Moore and another individual were sitting on the front porch when Miner, without provocation, fatally stabbed Moore in the chest. A short time later, police found Miner lying in a dog pen, highly intoxicated, with a pocket knife with what appeared to be blood smeared on it. Miner admitted stabbing Moore but claimed he did so only after Moore bragged about "beating him" on a previous occasion. Reviewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the jury's determination of guilt, we conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found Miner guilty of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. In response to a jury question, the trial court recharged on the definition of malice murder and submitted to the jury copies of various charges for its consideration. Miner contends that the trial court erred by providing additional written instructions not given in the trial court's original oral instructions, specifically, charges on motive, murder during the commission of a felony and provocation by words alone.
It is within the discretion of the trial court to give or not to give unrequested additional instructions when the jury requests a recharge on a particular point, Patterson v. State, 264 Ga. 593(2), 449 S.E.2d 97 (1994), and the discretion includes the giving of unrequested instructions not contained in the trial court's original charge. Taylor v. State, 169 Ga.App. 842(2), 315 S.E.2d 661 (1984). Under the facts of this case, the additional instructions were accurate statements of the law and were authorized by the evidence. Therefore, we find no abuse of the trial court's discretion. See id. Nor was it an abuse of discretion for the trial court to recharge in written form. See Anderson v. State, 262 Ga. 26(3), 413 S.E.2d 732 (1992).
3. Miner argues that the trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury that the burden is on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense of murder is not mitigated by provocation and passion. In its original charge, the trial court instructed the jury that
the burden of proof is upon the State to prove every essential element of the crime charged and every material allegation of the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt. There is no burden of proof, whatsoever, upon this defendant, and the burden of proof never shifts to a defendant to prove his or her innocence.
On recharge, the jury received the written pattern instruction on voluntary manslaughter which included language charging that the burden of proof is upon the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder offense is not mitigated by provocation or prejudice. While the better practice would have been for the trial court to include in its oral instruction the language from the pattern charge placing the burden of proving the absence of provocation or passion upon the State, we find the trial court's oral and written instructions as a whole adequately informed the jury of the State's burden of proof. See Hambrick v. State, 256 Ga. 688(3), 353 S.E.2d 177 (1987).
4. Miner contends the trial court's oral and written...
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Carter v. State, A14A1741.
...evidence of provocation or passion which might authorize a verdict of voluntary manslaughter.” (Citation omitted.) Miner v. State, 268 Ga. 67, 68(4), 485 S.E.2d 456 (1997).3 On December 12, 2014, the Georgia Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in Springer v. State, 328 Ga.App. 654, 7......
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