Minnesota Supreme Court, 1973

State v. Land

Minnesota Supreme Court · Decided January 12, 1973 · Knutson, Murphy, Otis

295 Minn. 538; 203 N.W.2d 541; 1973 Minn. LEXIS 1328 (Minnesota Reports)

Counsel

C. Paul Jones, State Public Defender, and Philip Marrón, Assistant State Public Defender, for appellant., Warren Spannaus, Attorney General, William B. Randall, County Attorney, and Steven C. BeCoster, Assistant County Attorney, for respondent.

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Citation treatment has not been reviewed for this case. The notes below come from the citation graph and the Minnesota Revisor's amendment records, not from a review of how later courts treated this decision.

(as of 9/30/2026)

Last cited by a Minnesota appellate court in 1976, among the opinions in this site’s citation index.

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Cases that cite this one

1 later published case cites this decision.

White v. State (Minn. 1976)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam.

Defendant, convicted by a district court jury of aggravated assault, Minn. St. 609.225, subd. 2, and sentenced to imprisonment for up to 5 years, contends on this direct appeal that, first, the state did not meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that his act was not justifiable, and second, his counsel, a public defender, did not represent him effectively.

After a careful review of the record, we conclude that the evidence, viewed most favorably to support a finding of guilt, was sufficient to permit the jury to convict defendant of aggravated assault. Defendant and an acquaintance disrupted a small birthday party by their loud arguing, and the hostess asked them to leave. Two of the guests escorted them out after they refused to leave voluntarily. On the way out defendant stabbed the guest who was escorting him. There was sufficient evidence from which the jury could reasonably conclude that defendant did so without justification and specifically not in self-defense.

Defendant has not met his strong burden of proving that his representation was so inadequate and ineffective as to justify the granting of a new trial.

Affirmed.

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.