Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
About
This compendium includes significant criminal cases by the U.S. Supreme Court & N.C. appellate courts, Nov. 2008 – Present. Selected 4th Circuit cases also are included.
Jessica Smith prepared case summaries Nov. 2008-June 4, 2019; later summaries are prepared by other School staff.
Instructions
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(1) Where the defendant was charged with two counts of felony assault on two separate victims, no error occurred where in its jury instruction the trial court referred to “the victim.” The defendant argued that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury to consider each offense individually. The court disagreed, noting that the charges were clearly separated on the verdict sheets and the trial court referred to the two victims by name and stated that they were separate victims of two different counts of assault. (2) The court came to the same conclusion with respect to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
The trial court did not commit plain error by categorizing multiple identical charges in one instruction. The trial court gave the jury a copy of the instructions and separate verdict sheets clearly identifying each charge.