Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Sam BOOKER, Jr.
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1980-01-28
Citations: 385 So. 2d 1186
Docket Number: No. 65384
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Sam BOOKER, Jr.
Judges: DENNIS, J., concurs and will assign reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 385
Pages: 1186–1193

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Sam BOOKER, Jr.
No. 65384.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Jan. 28, 1980.
On Rehearing July 7, 1980.
Lemmon, J., concurred and assigned reasons.
Dixon, C. J., concurred for reasons assigned by Lemmon, J.
Marcüs, J., dissented and assigned reasons.
Blanche, J., concurred in part and dissented in part for reasons assigned.
Watson, J., dissented and assigned reasons.
Wellborn Jack, Jr., Jack & Jack, Shreveport; Claude R. Sledge, Mansfield, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., James Lynn Davis, Dist. Atty., Herman L. Lawson, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
BLANCHE, Justice.
Defendant was charged by bill of information with attempted first degree murder in violation of R.S. 14:27. The jury, by a vote of 10 to 2, found defendant guilty of attempted second degree murder. R.S. 14:27. Defendant was sentenced to 36 years at hard labor.
At the end of the trial, defense counsel moved for a new trial on the basis that no evidence of one of the essential elements of second degree murder was presented to the jury. Defense counsel also objected to the sentence by alleging that the trial judge failed to follow the sentencing guidelines of C.Cr.P. art. 894.1 and that a 36-year sentence for this particular defendant is excessive. The trial judge denied both motions and defendant appeals.
The shooting for which defendant was convicted occurred in a barroom which defendant was managing on the night of the crime. On January 20, 1979, the victim, Willie Brady Hambrick, and defendant's stepdaughter, Jeanette August, got into an altercation which resulted in Hambrick trying to hit Miss August after she threw catsup on him. The defendant, with gun in hand, broke up the fight and told Hambrick to leave. Hambrick began heading for the door, but when he neared the door, the defendant fired two shots, the second of which hit Hambrick in the side. At the trial, defendant claimed self-defense, testifying that he fired the gun when he saw the victim reaching into his pocket for what the defendant thought was a gun.
Based on these facts, the jury convicted the defendant of attempted second degree murder. Under the applicable law, second degree murder was defined as the killing of a human being when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated escape, armed robbery, or simple robbery, even though he has no intent to kill.
Defense counsel argued that the conviction should be reversed because no evidence was presented at trial of an essential element of second degree murder, that is, that defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any of the felonies enumerated in the definition of second degree murder.
In C.Cr.P. art. 814, our legislature has expressly provided the responsive verdicts for certain well-known crimes. That provision designates attempted second degree murder as a responsive verdict to a charge of attempted first degree murder. C.Cr.P. art. 814. The state relies upon established jurisprudence that in Louisiana, if there is sufficient evidence in the record to support a conviction for a greater offense (which includes the one for which the defendant is convicted), the evidence necessarily and automatically will support a conviction of the lesser offense which has been made responsive by legislative action. State v. Cooley, 260 La. 768, 257 So.2d 400 (1972); State v. Peterson, 290 So.2d 307 (La.1974); State v. Madison, 319 So.2d 912 (La.1975); State v. Hoffman, 345 So.2d 1 (La.1977); State v. Qualls, 353 So.2d 978 (La.1978).
We note that in these cases, the responsive verdicts were lesser and included offenses in that the essential elements of the lesser crimes found by verdict were essential elements of the greater crime charged. This case presents a unique problem because the redefinition of second degree murder in 1978 resulted in an essential element of second degree murder, the commission of an enumerated felony not being an essential element of the crime of first degree murder.
Prior to the 1978 revision of the second degree murder statute, a conviction of first degree murder required proof of the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm. The jury could impose the death penalty upon proof of an aggravating circumstance, one of which was the commission of one of several enumerated felonies. A second degree murder conviction required proof of either (1) the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm or (2) the perpetration of one of several felonies. Thus, the definition of first degree murder included all the essential elements (killing with specific intent) of one type of second degree murder.
In 1978, the legislature redefined second degree murder to be the killing of a human being when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of one of several enumerated felonies, even though the offender has no specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm, mak ing felony murder the only type of second degree murder. The definition of first degree murder remained killing with specific intent. Second degree murder also remained a statutory responsive verdict to a charge of first degree murder. See C.Cr.P. art. 814. Thus, under the 1978 scheme, an essential element of second degree murder, the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an enumerated felony, is not included within the definition of first degree murder. As a consequence, the evidence required to prove first degree murder no longer proved second degree murder.
We have recognized that, notwithstanding that the legislature has provided statutorily for a responsive verdict, this Court cannot approve such a provision if it offends some constitutional principle. State v. Peterson, supra. In Peterson, we tested the rational basis for the legislature's determination that manslaughter was a responsive verdict to first degree murder by analyzing whether the greater offense necessarily includes the elements of the lesser offense. We held manslaughter to be a proper responsive verdict to first degree murder because the heat of passion provision in the definition of manslaughter was found to be in the nature of a defense mitigating the killer's culpability and not an element of the crime of manslaughter. Indeed, we have recognized that whether the elements of the lesser offense are included in the definition of the greater offense is the appropriate test for determining permissible responsive verdicts for crimes not provided for in C.Cr.P. art. 814. State v. McCoy, 337 So.2d 192 (La.1976); State v. Stewart, 292 So.2d 677 (La.1974).
An application of the Peterson analysis to the applicable definitions of first and second degree murder can only result in our concluding that no rational basis exists for making second degree murder responsive to first degree murder. A jury can acquit a defendant of first degree murder, thus finding no specific intent to kill, and find him guilty of second degree murder, even though no evidence exists to support a conclusion that the defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of one of the felonies enumerated in the 1978 definition of second degree murder, an essential element of the crime. This is exactly what occurred in the instant case, and prompts our holding that due process of law requires that responsive verdicts provided for in statutory enactments by the legislature not invite the jurors to arbitrarily choose a verdict which clearly is not supported by the evidence and which is not a lesser included offense of the greater offense charged. La.Const. art. 1, § 2; U.S. Const. Amend. 14. Accordingly, the defendant's conviction is reversed.
In so holding, we do not overturn case law holding that if there is some evidence in the record to support a conviction for a greater offense, the evidence will support a conviction of the lesser offense which has been made responsive by the legislature, see e. g. State v. Cooley, supra, so long as the elements of the lesser offense are included in the greater offense. A defendant has not been prejudiced if the evidence shows guilt of a greater offense because by proving the greater offense, the state has necessarily proved the elements of a lesser and included offense. In such a situation, the defendant cannot be heard to complain that he committed a crime more serious than the one of which he was convicted. State v. Peterson, supra; State v. Madison, supra.
For the above reasons, the conviction and sentence is reversed and the case is remanded to the district court with orders to dismiss the prosecution against the defendant.
REVERSED.
DENNIS, J., concurs and will assign reasons.
DIXON, J., dissents with reasons.
MARCUS and WATSON, JJ., dissent for reasons assigned by DIXON, J.
.La.Acts 1976, No. 657 amending La.R.S. 14:30. First degree murder was defined as "the killing of a human being when the offender has the specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm." In 1979, the definition of first degree murder was changed to:
§ 30. First degree murder
First degree murder is the killing of a human being:
(1) when the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated escape, aggravated arson, aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, armed robbery, or simple robbery;
(2) when the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon a fireman or peace officer engaged in the performance of his lawful duties;
(3) when the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon more than one person; or
(4) when the offender has specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm and has offered, has been offered, has given, or has received anything of value for the killing.
For the purposes of Paragraph (2) herein, the term peace officer is defined to include any constable, marshal, deputy marshal, sheriff, deputy sheriff, local or state policeman, game warden, federal law enforcement officer, jail or prison guard, parole officer, probation officer, judge, attorney general, assistant attorney general, attorney general's investigator, district attorney, assistant district attorney, or district attorney's investigator.
Whoever commits the crime of first degree murder shall be punished by death or life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence in accordance with the recommendation of the jury, (approved June 29, 1979)
. La.Acts 1976, No. 694 adding La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.3. The procedure is the same today.
. In La.Acts 1977, No. 121 amending La.R.S. 14:30.1, second degree murder was defined as:
"A. The killing of a human being when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated escape, armed robbery, or simple robbery, even though he has no intent to kill; or
B. The killing of a human being when the offender has a specific intent to kill, under circumstances that would be first degree murder under Article 30, but the killing is accomplished without any of the aggravating circumstances listed in Article 905.4 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure."
. La.Acts 1978, No. 796 amending La.R.S. 14:30.1. Second degree murder was redefined to be:
"... the killing of a human being when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated escape, armed robbery, or simple robbery, even though he has no intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm."
In 1979 the definition of second degree murder was changed to:
§-30.1. Second degree murder
Second degree murder is the killing of a human being:
(1) when the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm; or
(2) when the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated escape, armed robbery, or simple robbery, even though he has no intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm.
Whoever commits the crime of second degree murder shall be punished by life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, (approved June 29, 1979)
. For similar analysis and conclusion, see Baker, Jr., J., "work of Appellate Courts — 1975-1976", 37 La.L.R. 562 (1977).