Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
No 96-1693
Court below: United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
At issue in this death-penalty case is whether a person convicted of
felony murder had a due process right to have jury instructions on
lesser-included charges (second-degree murder or manslaughter) when,
under
Nebraska law, no lesser-included offenses for felony murder exist.
On March 29, 1980 Randolph Reeves raped and stabbed two women to death
in
a Quaker meetinghouse in Lincoln, NE. A jury found him guilty of felony
murder and a three judge panel sentenced him to death. The jury was
told
that the penalty for felony murder could be life imprisonmente or death.
The court below held that under Beck v. Alabama (447 US 625 (1980)), the
jury had to be instructed on lesser-included offenses if the evidence
could warrant a conviction for those offenses. The State maintains that
felony murder has never included lesser offenses in NE and since the
three
judge panel had discretion in sentencing, the Beck rule doesn't apply.
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