State v. Burns
State v. Burns
Opinion of the Court
Defendant appeals consecutive life sentences for murder in the first degree and armed criminal action. The evidence supported submission of the charged crimes and the guilty verdicts. Defendant shot and killed a young man who was sitting in a parked car. The court submitted, and the jury rejected, defendant’s claim of self-defense.
We find no merit in defendant’s argument “the trial court erred when it compelled [defendant] to commit to testifying before allowing counsel to question the jury panel on self-defense.” During voir dire, defense counsel told the panel “one of the issues in this case is going to be self-defense.” The state objected generally because “the case law is that the Court must decide if certain criteria are met before the jury’s instructed on self-defense ... [and] I don’t think they’re going to meet the criteria.” The court responded by telling defense counsel, “I’m not going to let you do [voir dire on self-defense] unless you can tell me that your client is going to take the stand and that is what he’s going to say.” After a discussion with defendant, counsel informed the court that his client would testify. Counsel did voir dire on self-defense. He elected to inform the venire panel that defendant would testify. The court did not require that commitment.
Voir dire is conducted under the supervision of the court, and the nature and extent of the questions counsel may ask are discretionary with the court. State v. Ramsey, 864 S.W.2d 320, 335 (Mo. banc 1993). We review for an abuse of discretion and a real probability of injury to the complaining party. State v. Skelton, 851 S.W.2d 33, 35 (Mo.App. E.D. 1993).
Assuming, without the need to decide, the court erred in requiring a commitment of counsel that defendant would testify, we find no prejudicial error. It did not order
We also find defendant’s second claim of error is without merit. Defendant offered an MAI-CR 3d 306.06 self-defense instruction. The court gave a self-defense instruction. It rejected defendant’s offer which included a direction that the jury consider the decedent’s reputation for being violent. If there is evidence to support a finding that the decedent had such reputation and that defendant had knowledge of decedent’s reputation, then these considerations would be relevant in determining whether defendant had a reasonable belief he was in imminent danger of harm from the decedent. Note on Use No. 6 for this instruction permits the reputation paragraph only if there is evidence defendant was aware of the decedent’s reputation for violence. Here, there was no reputation evidence to support any finding. Evidence that decedent once had used a weapon and once may have assaulted someone, does not constitute reputation evidence. The evidence regarding those incidents was before the jury. The instruction which the court submitted permitted the jury to consider that evidence in determining the issue of defendant’s reasonable belief. The instruction the court gave submitted the issue in the form supported by the evidence. Point denied.
We affirm.
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