Mobley v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jerome Mobley’s convictions and sentence after concluding that the evidence did not warrant a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter. The court held that Mobley presented no evidence that being shot actually caused a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion, and that the victim’s defensive conduct would not constitute sufficient provocation for a reasonable person under the circumstances.

Holdings

1. The trial court did not err in refusing to give a voluntary-manslaughter instruction because the evidence did not provide the required slight evidence of both actual sudden, violent, and irresistible passion and provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter as a lesser offense of murder when Mobley claimed that the victim shot him after an argument and that the shooting constituted sufficient provocation.

Disposition

affirmed