State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Angela Dawn Miller, Defendant Below, Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed Angela Miller's first-degree murder conviction and life sentence, rejecting challenges to the indictment, jury qualification and challenges for cause, jury instructions, prosecutorial conduct, grand-jury proceedings, and ineffective assistance of counsel. It held that the indictment adequately charged first-degree murder, the malice instruction created a permissible rather than mandatory inference, and Miller waived her self-defense-instruction claim by withdrawing the requested instructions and failing to object. The ineffective-assistance claim was denied without prejudice because it should be pursued in a collateral proceeding.