Reeves, Gary Patrick

How courts have described this case

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

• noting that, if the defendant did object at trial, he will obtain relief if the record shows that he suffered “some harm”
• recognizing that “some harm” means actual not merely theoretical harm
• holding court looks to jury instructions as a whole and not in isolation in assaying the harm arising from any jury-charge error
• noting that instructions from criminal pattern jury charges on provocation “subdivide the various issues into short lists that jurors may read and understand without undue difficulty”
• stating that “this less-stringent [harm] standard still requires the reviewing court to find that the defendant suffered some actual, rather than merely theoretical, harm from the error”
• holding arguments weighed in favor of harm where the State “read a portion of the erroneous charge to the jury,” “emphasized the improper instruction,” and “brought it to the front of the jurors’ minds”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).