State v. Brayboy - murder conviction reversed
In State v. Brayboy, decided March 4, the S.C. Court of Appeals reversed Brayboy's murder conviction because the trial judge failed to charge the jury on involuntary manslaughter. Where there is any evidence of manslaughter presented at trial, the jury must be charged on the lesser included offense, and the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the defendant:
Importantly, our courts have long emphasized that to warrant a court's eliminating the offense of manslaughter, it should very clearly appear that there is no evidence whatsoever tending to reduce the crime from murder to manslaughter. State v. Cole, 338 S.C. 97, 101, 525 S.E.2d 511, 513 (2000); State v. Burriss, 334 S.C. 256, 265, 513 S.E.2d 104, 109 (1999); Casey v. State, 305 S.C. 445, 447, 409 S.E.2d 391, 392 (1991). A request to charge a lesser included offense is properly refused only when there is no evidence that the defendant committed the lesser rather than the greater offense. Casey, 305 S.C. at 447, 409 S.E.2d at 392.Involuntary manslaughter is (1) the unintentional killing of another without malice, but while engaged in an unlawful activity not naturally tending to cause death or great bodily harm or (2) the unintentional killing of another without malice, while engaged in a lawful activity with reckless disregard for the safety of others.
In this case, there was evidence presented that Brayboy's girlfriend picked up a gun, that the two struggled over it, that Brayboy was waving it as they argued, and that it went off unintentionally. The Court holds that it does not matter if the defendant is acting in self-defense, but the question is whether the defendant is lawfully armed.
The Court says that, since the girlfriend picked up the weapon first, Brayboy was not "presenting" the weapon; distinguishing State v. Reese, 370 S.C. 31, 633 S.E.2d 898 (2006), where the defendant was the one who produced the gun. Since Brayboy was not "presenting" the gun, the jury could find that he was lawfully armed and the jury should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
