Scott v. State

Christopher Scott was convicted by a Chatham County jury of murdering his wife, Tiffany, after an argument in their garage ended with a gunshot to her head. At trial, Scott asked the judge to instruct the jury that it could instead find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a lesser charge, based on the idea that he had recklessly handled his gun or unlawfully pointed it at her. He also had earlier asked for, but withdrew, a request for an instruction covering a different kind of involuntary manslaughter involving a lawful act done in an unlawful way. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Scott argued the trial judge should have given the involuntary manslaughter instructions he requested. The court disagreed, finding the evidence showed Scott committed aggravated assault, a felony that cannot support an involuntary manslaughter instruction, and that Scott could not challenge the withdrawn instruction because he had given it up himself. The court affirmed his convictions and sentence of life without parole.

A trial court need not instruct a jury on unlawful act involuntary manslaughter when the evidence shows the defendant's conduct amounted to a felony, such as aggravated assault, and a defendant who withdraws a request for a lawful act involuntary manslaughter instruction cannot later claim plain error for its absence.

The decision reinforces that Georgia trial judges do not have to offer juries a lesser-charge option when the evidence points to a felony like aggravated assault, and that defendants who withdraw a jury-instruction request cannot later claim it was wrongly denied. This guides how future murder trials handle lesser-included offense instructions.

Judgment affirmed

1. Georgia law recognizes two forms of involuntary manslaughter: causing death by an unlawful act that is not a felony (O.C.G.A. § 16-5-3(a)), or causing death by a lawful act performed in a dangerous, unlawful manner (O.C.G.A. § 16-5-3(b)); a jury instruction on the first type is required only if there is at least slight evidence to support it.
2. The court found that even under the slight-evidence standard, the record did not support instructions on reckless conduct or unlawfully pointing a pistol, because there was no real evidence Scott tripped and accidentally fired the gun, only speculative questioning on cross-examination.
3. The evidence instead showed Scott retrieved his gun, went back to the garage, and shot his wife in the head while the gun's muzzle touched her skin right after she said 'shoot me,' which the court found matched the crime of aggravated assault, a felony.
4. Because Georgia law bars using a felony like aggravated assault as the underlying unlawful act for an involuntary manslaughter charge, the trial court correctly declined to give that instruction.
5. As for the separate instruction on lawful act involuntary manslaughter, Scott never objected when the judge left it out, so the court reviewed only for plain error, a stricter standard requiring the error not have been affirmatively given up by the defendant.
6. Because Scott's own attorney withdrew the request for that instruction during the charge conference, the court held he had waived any right to it and therefore could not show plain error.

• murder conviction
• jury instructions
• involuntary manslaughter
• aggravated assault
• domestic violence