Ferrazza v. Mintzes

In this habeas corpus case, the evidence presented against petitioner at his state trial for first degree murder shows that he participated in the murder of an individual who had been strangled to death, weighted with cement blocks and thrown into a lake. The Respondent Warden appeals from the District Courts judgment granting the writ. The District Court held -- we believe, incorrectly -- that the state trial courts failure to instruct the jury on a lesser included homicide offense in addition to first degree murder violated defendants constitutional right to due process protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. In Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 611, 102 S. Ct. 2049, 72 L. Ed. 2d 367 (1982), the United States Supreme Court held in a capital case that "due process requires that a lesser included offense instruction be given only when the evidence warrants such an instruction." See also Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 637, 100 S. Ct. 2382, 65 L. Ed. 2d 392 (1980). The principle is not limited to capital cases and should be applied here as well. See Pilon v. Bordenkircher, 593 F.2d 264, 267 n.4 (6th Cir.), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 444 U.S. 1, 100 S. Ct. 7, 62 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1979).