State v. Glover, 106 So. 3d 129

Glover, 17, was charged after a September 14, 2007 shooting at an apartment complex in Shreveport that injured bystanders, including a 4-month-old and a juvenile.
Eyewitnesses Maiden, A.M., Johnson, and White positively identified Glover as the shooter; a photo lineup followed the incident.
Glover was convicted by a jury of two counts of attempted manslaughter and later adjudicated a second felony offender based on a prior illegal use of a weapon conviction.
The trial court sentenced Glover to concurrent 35-year hard-labor terms without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, and ordered court costs.
Glover argued insufficiency of evidence, self-defense burden of proof and jury instruction issues, ineffective assistance of counsel, and constitutional excessiveness of the sentence.
The appellate court affirmed the conviction but amended the sentences to delete parole denial, finding no prejudice from the self-defense instruction issue and upholding the overall sentencing discretion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for attempted manslaughter	Glover argues insufficient evidence of specific intent.	State asserts eyewitnesses and admissions prove intent.	Sufficiency established; rational juror could find intent beyond reasonable doubt.
Self-defense burden and jury instruction	Glover claims improper burden allocation and missing instruction.	State contends no error; jury could apply self-defense facts.	No reversible error; any error was harmless.
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Counsel failed to object to self-defense burden issue.	Record shows strategic choice; no prejudice.	No merit; record supports trial strategy and lack of prejudice.
Excessiveness of sentences given youth and mitigating factors	Glover should receive shorter sentence due to youth and provocation.	Discretionary weighing supported by 894.1 factors and cruelty/risk.	Sentences not an abuse of discretion; youth weighed but not controlling factor.
Parole eligibility denial as part of habitual-offender sentence	Parole denial was improper for manslaughter sentence under statute.	Parole denied under habitual-offender rules.	Amended to delete parole denial; otherwise affirmed.

State v. Linnear, 26 So.3d 303 (La. App.2d Cir.12/9/09) (self-defense burden in non-homicide cases; dual inquiries of reasonableness and necessity)
Jackson v. United States, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (standard for sufficiency of evidence (Jackson v. Virginia))
State v. Cheatham, 877 So.2d 164 (La. App.2d Cir.6/23/04) (burden of proof for self-defense in non-homicide cases)
State v. Robinson, 966 So.2d 139 (La. App.2d Cir.9/26/07) (self-defense burden and instructional considerations)
Hudson v. Louisiana, 450 U.S. 24 (U.S. 1981) (reversal remedy for insufficient evidentiary support or due process)