State v. Gregory Hampton-Boyd

Syllabus

The defendant, Gregory Hampton-Boyd, appealed from a judgment of conviction entered in the Superior Court following a jury verdict of guilty on one count of first-degree robbery, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-39-1(a) one count of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-47-3.2(b) one count of possession of a firearm without a license, in violation of § 11-47-8(a) one count of possession of a firearm after being convicted of a crime of violence, in violation of § 11-47-5 and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-5-2. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial justice erred in refusing to instruct the jury on cross-racial identification and that the trial justice's denial of the defendant's motion to dismiss the state's habitual offender notice violated his right to due process. The Supreme Court held that the trial justice properly relied on Rhode Island law when he decided not to use the defendant's requested cross-racial identification instruction. However, while the Court discerned no reversible error in this case, the Court also held that simply stating that the jury may consider differences in race and ethnicity without further context for that instruction is not an appropriate charge. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court concluded that there was no error or abuse of discretion in the trial justice's refusal to employ the defendant's requested instruction. The Court also declined to overrule its prior interpretation of the Rhode Island habitual offender statute, G.L. 1956 § 12-19-21, as set forth in State v. Peterson, 722 A.2d 259 (R.I. 1998). The Supreme Court determined that notice received on the date of the pretrial conference complied with the holding in Peterson and advised the defendant of the consequences of a conviction, which is all that due process requires. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the judgment of conviction.