Thomas Daugherty, Petitioner v. State of Florida, Respondent

Summary

The court quashed the district court's decision and held that an erroneous manslaughter-by-act instruction constituted fundamental error because manslaughter was a next lesser offense of second-degree murder, regardless of where it appeared on the verdict form. The court also held that neither the culpable-negligence instruction nor the third-degree-felony-murder instruction cured the error, and that the erroneous attempted-voluntary-manslaughter instructions independently required new trials on the attempted-murder counts. The case was remanded for a new trial on all counts. POLSTON, J., dissenting, would have approved the district court's decision because she believed no fundamental error occurred, and CANADY, J., joined her dissent.