346
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
relief in respondent's case. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore
Reversed.
Justice O'Connor, with whom Justice White joins, concurring in the judgment.
Kevin Taylor admitted that he had killed Scott Siniscalchi. He contended, however, that he had "act[ed] under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation by [Siniscalchi]." Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38, ¶ 9-2 (1985). If Taylor's account is to be believed, then, under the law of the State of Illinois, he is not guilty of murder but rather of manslaughter. Ibid. At trial, Taylor took the stand and admitted to the two elements of murder. He asked only that the jury consider his state of mind when he acted and convict him of voluntary manslaughter, acquitting him of murder. Illinois law is clear that this put the jury to a choice: Taylor could be convicted only of manslaughter or murder—not of both. Indeed, because Taylor produced sufficient evidence to raise the defense of sudden passion, Illinois law required the State to negate Taylor's defense beyond a reasonable doubt. People v. Reddick, 123 Ill. 2d 184, 197, 526 N. E. 2d 141, 146 (1988). As a result, the jury should not have been permitted to convict Taylor of murder if there was so much as a reasonable possibility that Taylor's manslaughter defense had merit. Ibid.
In Falconer v. Lane, 905 F. 2d 1129 (1990), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that instructions similar to those given at Taylor's trial did not comport with Illinois law and were ambiguous at best. In Taylor's case, according to the Court of Appeals, this ambiguity resulted in a reasonable likelihood that the jury misunderstood those instructions, and that once it found Taylor guilty of the two elements of murder (to which Taylor had admitted), the jury simply stopped deliberating without considering the possibility that Taylor was guilty only of manslaughter. 954 F. 2d
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