State v. Miller, 259 P.3d 701

June 12, 2007, Miller and others celebrated Holliday's birthday at Peeler's Kansas City, Kansas apartment; Estis choked Holliday and revealed a gun.
Estis departed; Miller, Chapman, and Watson left and later returned to check on Peeler and their child.
Miller testified he feared Estis and borrowed a semiautomatic handgun from an acquaintance.
Miller fired at Estis, shot him twice; Estis retrieved a gun, Miller rearmed, and shot Estis twice more in the head.
Miller was charged with premeditated first-degree murder; jury was instructed on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter as lesser included offenses.
The jury convicted Miller of second-degree murder; Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed otherwise, and the Supreme Court granted review.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the instruction error on lesser included offenses affected the verdict	Miller argues the sequential instruction (Alternative A) contradicts the simultaneous instruction (Alternative B)	State contends instructions, viewed together, properly stated law	Yes; error was clear and could have altered the verdict
Whether the district court’s improper combination of instructions requires reversal and remand	Miller asserts real possibility of different verdict without the flawed instruction	State maintains no clear error given overall instructions	Reversed and remanded for a new trial

Graham v. State, 275 Kan. 831 (2003) (reordering of offenses violated mitigating-review process when heat-of-passion evidence present)
Cribbs v. State, 29 Kan. App. 2d 919 (2001) (instruction error where sequential consideration of offenses impeded full analysis of mitigating factors)
Abu-Fakher v. State, 274 Kan. 584 (2002) (improvised instructions lacking proper delineation of alternatives; distinguishes from Graham/Cribbs)