Preview:

State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Kurt Thomas Bird, Appellant. A06-888, Supreme Court, July 12, 2007.

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A06-888

Hennepin County
Anderson, Paul H., J.

State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs.
Filed: July 12, 2007 Office of Appellate Courts

Kurt Thomas Bird, Appellant.

SYLLABUS District court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded expert psychiatric testimony concerning defendant's mental illness at the time defendant shot his wife, when the testimony was offered regarding whether (1) defendant acted in the heat of passion; (2) a person of ordinary self-control who experienced mental illness symptoms similar to the defendant's mental illness symptoms would have been provoked to a heat of passion under like circumstances; and (3) defendant acted "under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life" for the purposes of the domestic abuse murder statute, Minn. Stat.

Download opa060888-0712.pdf

Minnesota Law