readopting statutory-elements approach and overruling Garza to extent that that case relied upon cognate-evidence approach
How later courts described this case
- readopting statutory-elements approach and overruling Garza to extent that that case relied upon cognate-evidence approach
- "[O]nce it is determined that an offense is a lesser-included one, a court must examine the evidence to determine whether it justifies an instruction on the lesser-included offense by producing a rational basis for a verdict acquitting defendant of the offense charged and convicting him of the lesser offense.”
- abandoning cognate evidence approach for determining what constitutes lesser-included offenses in favor of statutory elements approach
- “[I]n determining whether an offense is indeed a lesser-included one, a court initially does not look to the evidence in the particular case, but, rather, as the name of the statutory-elements rule implies, looks only to the elements of the criminal offense.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Boslaugh, J.,
concurring in the judgment only.
I concur in only that part of the majority opinion which holds that the evidence in this case was such that there was no rational basis for the jury to convict the defendant of only the lesser offense. Thus, an instruction on a lesser-included offense was not required, and I concur in the judgment of the court for that reason.