In State v. Dunbrack, the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed two defendants’ convictions for robbery — and reversed the Appellate Division — over claims that the trial court should have sua sponte charged the jury on lesser-included theft offenses. Pursuant to the case’s plain error standard of review, the Supreme Court held that the facts of the case did not “jump[] off the page”. The Court ruled that, given that the defense attorneys did not object to the final jury instructions, it was not the trial court’s job to job to scour the record to find lesser-included offenses with which to charge the jury.
