State of Hawai'I, Respondent/plaintiff-Appellee v. Tracy Nichols, Petitioner/defendant-Appellant

Summary

The Hawai'i Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether the Intermediate Court of Appeals misstated the standard of review for jury instructions that drew no timely objection, and held that for erroneous jury instructions the HRPP Rule 52(b) plain error standard effectively merges with the HRPP Rule 52(a) harmless error standard because the duty to properly instruct the jury rests with the trial court; once instructional error is demonstrated, the conviction must be vacated without regard to timely objection if there is a reasonable possibility the error contributed to it. Applying that standard, the court found the circuit court's failure to give a Valdivia-style 'relevant attributes' instruction — allowing the jury to weigh Officer Krau's training and status as a police officer in assessing the objective reasonableness of his fear — was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, reversed the ICA, vacated the conviction for first-degree terroristic threatening, and remanded for a new trial. For remand guidance, it further held that terroristic threatening in the first degree requires no nexus between the threat and a government employee's official duties, and that on the same evidence no lesser-included second-degree terroristic threatening instruction is required. Justice Nakayama, joined by Chief Justice Moon, concurred in the result but dissented from the standard-of-review holding, and later dissented from the court's denial of the State's motion for reconsideration.