People v. Sloan

This case presents question as to whether Appellate Court properly declined to consider strength of evidence supporting defendant’s guilt on murder charge, after finding that defendant was entitled to new trial, where trial court had improperly failed to give defendant’s proposed jury instruction that would have told jury that person who did not initially provoke use of force against said person has no duty to attempt to escape danger before using force against said aggressor. In its petition for leave to appeal, State argued that Appellate Court should have considered strength of State’s case against defendant and used harmless error analysis to uphold defendant’s murder conviction.