State of Vermont v. Mark Hatcher

Summary

The Court affirmed Hatcher's second-degree murder conviction, holding that submitting the lesser-included offense after acquitting him of first-degree murder did not violate double jeopardy and that deliberation is not an element of second-degree murder. The evidence supported the conviction, and the jury instructions adequately placed on the State the burden to disprove passion or provocation. The Court also rejected Hatcher's remaining instructional-error and prosecutorial-misconduct claims, finding no preserved error or plain error.