Murder Verdict Nixed Over Lawyer Not Objecting to Instruction

A defendant convicted as an accomplice in a double murder is entitled to a new trial because his lawyer didn’t object when the judge dropped the mental-intent requirement from the jury instruction, the Third Circuit said Wednesday.

Aaron Tyson, Otis Powell, and Kasine George were in a car following a van with two brothers in it who pulled a gun on Tyson. When they pulled up behind the van, Powell asked Tyson, who was driving, for his gun, and he gave it to him.

Powell got out of the car, told the other two to wait, walked up to Daniel ...