Christopher Dean, Petitioner v. State of Florida, Respondent — Polston, J., Concurring

Summary

Justice Polston concurred in approving the affirmance of Dean’s convictions, reasoning that the trial court’s failure to give a requested manslaughter instruction was harmless where the evidence established the charged second-degree felony murder. He argued that the rule treating such instructional omissions as per se reversible rests on a jury-pardon doctrine that lacks legal foundation and conflicts with jurors’ duties to follow the law and evidence. Justice Quince concurred in the result on the ground that manslaughter was not a necessarily lesser included offense, while Justice Pariente would have required reversal and a new trial because the omitted instruction was per se reversible.