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Marvin Royston White v. State,
No. F-2005-110 (Okl.Cr., May 11, 2007) (unpublished): DUI; Jury Instructions (Court's Failure to Instruct): White was tried by jury in Grady County on three counts of First Degree Manslaughter (Misdemeanor DUI). White was involved in a collision on November 23, 2003, that killed three persons near Tuttle, Oklahoma. Associate District Judge John E. Herndon sentenced White to 20 years on each count in accordance with the jury's verdict, to be served consecutively. At the time of the collision, White was driving home from a weekend hunting trip and had a BAC of between 0.08 and 0.09. White's defense was that he did not drink any beer on the day of the collision, but he medicated himself with Equate Nite Time cold medicine which contained alcohol and he was unaware that it contained alcohol. White denied that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision and asserted that he must have fallen asleep. Trial counsel did not request instructions on involuntary intoxication. In this 3-2 opinion, the Court REVERSED and remanded for new trial, finding PLAIN ERROR in the failure of the trial court to sua sponte instruct on the defense of involuntary intoxication(!!) NOTE: This is quite an amazing case. I do not recall offhand any case in which the Court reversed on the basis that the trial court failed to instruct sua sponte (usually these types of instructional errors are waived if trial counsel does not request the instructions). I suspect there is some aspect of the facts of this case which lead the majority to believe that the proceedings were unfair (there were many issues raised in addition to the one that resulted in reversal).
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