State v. Woodman

Citations

• 2025 ND 12

Syllabus

Obvious error review consists of determining whether (1) there was an error, (2) that was plain, and (3) that affected a party's substantial rights. Obvious error review is applied only to prevent an unjust conviction, or the exceptional situations where the defendant has suffered serious injustice. When a defendant fails to object to a proposed instruction properly, or fails to specifically request an instruction or object to the omission of an instruction, the issue is not adequately preserved for appellate review and our inquiry is limited to whether the jury instructions constitute obvious error affecting substantial rights. When prosecutorial misconduct is raised for the first time on appeal, review is limited to determining whether the prosecutor's conduct prejudicially affected the defendant's substantial rights, so as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial. Review on appeal of a sentence is generally confined to whether the district court acted within the statutory sentencing limits or substantially relied on an impermissible factor.