Was Directive to Ignore Testimony About Offender’s Medical Condition a Defective Jury Instruction?
State of Ohio v. Andrew W. Fulmer, Case no. 2007-0265 11th District Court of Appeals (Lake County) ISSUE: When the state is required to prove that a criminal defendant acted “knowingly” in committing an unlawful act, and the defense elicits testimony from the state’s medical expert that ingesting an overdose of aspirin could have caused the defendant to be “metabolically deranged” at the time of the crime, does a trial judge commit reversible error by instructing jury members to disregard “any evidence as to … the defendant’s medical condition” in determining whether he was capable of forming the guilty mental state necessary to support a conviction? BACKGROUND: Three Eastlake police officers were dispatched to a business address in that city where they had been told they would find Andrew Fulmer, who had reportedly taken a number of unidentified pills in an attempt the commit suicide. After initially not answering when officers knocked, Fulmer emerged from the building but then walk
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