Ledet v. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

How later courts describe this case

• holding accomplice liability instruction sufficient when trial court separately explained to jury that specific intent to kill must be found to support first-degree murder conviction
• kidnapping conviction circumstantially proven where evidence demonstrated that victim was last seen leaving a bar with defendants, to whom he had offered a ride, and that his body was found in a wooded area some distance away
• district attorney’s comments that the defendants carved the victim up “like a cheap piece of tenderloin” merely summarized trial evidence with permissible oratorical flair
• photographs clearly depicting the victim’s slashed throat, open eye and other head injuries were admissible
• prosecutor’s comments about appellant that “[w]e’re here together with the coldness of heart, hard to believe, and with an evil intention of mind, ... and a coldness of disposition” were proper remarks which were not designed to inflame the passions of the jury