State v. Andrew Mangru

Syllabus

The defendant appealed from two judgments of conviction following a jury verdict finding him guilty of second-degree murder and other offenses. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial justice erred in instructing the jury to consider voluntary manslaughter only if they found that the state did not prove either first degree or second-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Upon reviewing the record, the Supreme Court held that the trial justice's instructions, when viewed in their entirety, adequately explained the relevant law and were appropriate. Furthermore, the Supreme Court held that because the jury convicted the defendant of second-degree murder, the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant acted with malice and therefore necessarily disproved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted in a heat of passion upon adequate provocation. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the judgments of conviction.