Bates County National Bank v. Owen

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that a jury instruction that changes an element of an offense charged by a grand jury or adds an offense not charged in the indictment is grounds for a reversal of the conviction
• explaining that an amendment of an indictment may be impermissible if it prejudices the defendant “either in his ability to understand properly the charges against him or in his ability to prepare his defense” (quotation omitted)
• trial court impermissibly amended indictment by instructing jury it could convict defendant of manslaughter without finding that defendant shot victim
• “An impermissible amendment . . . would be one that effects a change in the offense charged, or adds an offense.” (Quotations, brackets and ellipsis omitted.)
• defendant alerted to State’s position that he could be convicted of manslaughter, even if he was not the one who pulled the trigger, on first day of trial when defense counsel viewed State’s proposed jury instructions
• reversible error for jury instruction to alter the criminal indictment by instructing on a separate crime —that the defendant caused the death of the victim as opposed to the charged offense of shooting the victim

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).