Damian Pace was indicted for one count of burglary, one count of forcible rape, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of extortion. The jury acquitted Pace of the rape count, but found him guilty on the other counts. Kind of. What makes this case different is the jury found Pace guilty of robbery. Problem is, Pace wasn’t indicted for robbery. The form of the verdict jury instruction is the only place where the word robbery was mentioned. Despite the fact that Pace wasn’t charged with robbery, the trial court entered a judgement of conviction for robbery, and later entered an amended judgement of conviction changing burglary, for which Pace was indicted, to robbery to conform with the jury verdict. The even crazier thing is, no one caught the fact that Pace was convicted of a crime he wasn’t charged with except the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court opined that one can not be convicted of a crime for which they were not charged, and reversed and rendered his conviction for robbery. They affirmed the remaining three convictions.
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