## Facts

- Latoya Bonte Elzey and her boyfriend, Migail Hunter, were staying in a friend’s small apartment in Salisbury, Maryland.
- After drinking late at night, Elzey and Hunter argued; the friend heard Elzey tell Hunter to keep his hands off her and later heard a loud slapping sound and Elzey say, “stop hitting her.”
- Elzey obtained a large butcher knife from the kitchen and returned to the living room; the friend heard Hunter taunt Elzey to stab him and then heard a loud noise.
- Hunter was found on the floor with a knife wound and died before medical help arrived.
- Elzey admitted she stabbed Hunter but asserted self-defense, describing prior physical abuse by Hunter and a history of abusive intimate relationships.
- A psychiatrist testified that Elzey suffered from Battered Spouse Syndrome (BSS) at the time of the killing, based on her history of abusive relationships, including her relationship with Hunter.
- A jury acquitted Elzey of murder but convicted her of voluntary manslaughter.

## Issues

1. Whether a trial court may instruct jurors that they must first find the decedent repeatedly abused the defendant before considering admitted BSS expert testimony and other BSS evidence, including evidence of abuse by prior partners.
2. Whether such an instruction improperly emphasizes some evidence over other evidence and intrudes on the jury’s factfinding function.
3. Whether any instructional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the intermediate appellate court and ordered a new trial.
- The trial court abused its discretion by conditioning the jury’s consideration of BSS evidence on a predicate finding that the decedent repeatedly abused the defendant.
- The instruction improperly emphasized the decedent’s alleged abuse over other relevant abuse evidence and risked influencing the jury’s weighing of evidence.
- The State did not prove the error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt given the importance of BSS evidence to the self-defense claim and the verdict’s posture (murder acquittal, manslaughter conviction).

## Legal Principles

- Under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-916, the prerequisite for admitting BSS evidence is that the defendant raises BSS as an issue in support of self-defense; the statute does not require a prior finding that the victim repeatedly abused the defendant.
- Once BSS evidence is properly admitted, jury instructions may not withhold or condition the jury’s consideration of that evidence on a predicate factual finding.
- Evidence of abuse by persons other than the decedent may be relevant to BSS because the defendant’s state of mind may reflect the aggregate effects of a traumatic abuse history.
- A trial judge may not instruct in a manner that signals an opinion on the weight or importance of particular evidence, thereby intruding on the jury’s role as factfinder.
- When instructional error affects the jury’s consideration of evidence central to the defense theory, the State bears the burden to show harmlessness beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Conclusion

The court held that BSS instructions cannot require jurors to find repeated abuse by the decedent before considering admitted BSS evidence, including evidence of abuse by prior partners; because the error affected evidence central to self-defense and was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, Elzey’s conviction was vacated and the case remanded for a new trial.


State v. Elzey, 472 Md. 84, 244 A.3d 1068 (2021)