In Fiegehen v. State, 121 Nev. 293, 113 P.3d 305, 306 (Nev. 2005), Fiegehen was charged with murder, burglary and other charges. In Nevada, a jury finding a defendant guilty of murder is required by statute to designate whether the murder was first or second degree. Id. at 306. In that case, however, when the jury returned its verdict, it merely found Fiegehen guilty of "murder with the use of a deadly weapon." Id. at 306-08. In addressing the argument that the conviction was a nullity, the Nevada Supreme Court recognized the "consistent line of cases" holding that, pursuant to statutory directive, a failure to designate the degree of murder renders the verdict a nullity. Id. at 308. Under the circumstances of that case, however, the court rejected Fiegehen's argument that his murder conviction was invalid. Id. at 312. The court held that, where "the verdict as a whole unequivocally establishes a finding of felony murder, the verdict satisfies the command of the statute requiring the jury to announce the degree of murder because felony murder is first-degree murder as a matter of law." Id. at 306. Because second-degree murder was not an option where the defendant was charged solely with first-degree felony murder, and the jury clearly found the defendant guilty of the predicate felony, a finding of first-degree felony murder could clearly be "discerned solely from the jury's verdict as a matter of law." Id. at 310. In that situation, the court stated, "reversing the conviction based on the jury's failure to expressly include the words 'first-degree murder' in its verdict would merely elevate form over substance." Id. Accordingly, the court held that, because the verdict established a finding of first-degree murder as a matter of law, it satisfied the statutory requirement that the jury designate that the guilty verdict of murder was of the first or second degree. Id.