Opinion ID: 154635
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Instructions given by the court

Text: Mr. Swallow first argues that the instructions as a whole incorrectly stated the applicable law. The district court did not give the jury any instructions specifically on the issue of proximate cause or the defense of intervening cause. Rather, the court instructed the jury that to find Mr. Swallow guilty of first-degree murder, it must find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Swallow committed the “unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought” that was “perpetrated by any kind of willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being . . . .” Rec. vol. XIII, at 14. The court defined second-degree murder as the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought, “but without the premeditated intent willfully to take a human life . . . .” Id. at 20-21. Proximate cause of death is an essential component of both first- and second-degree murder. See e.g., Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 774-821 (3d ed. 1982); State v. Bennis, 457 N.W.2d 843, 846 (S.D. 1990). Although the trial court did not expressly instruct that the government had the burden to prove that Mr. 7 Swallow’s conduct was the proximate cause of the decedents’ deaths, the court did instruct that the jury that, in order to find Mr. Swallow guilty of first or second-degree murder, it had to find that Mr. Swallow “kill[ed]” the decedents. See Rec. vol. XIII, at 16, 21; see also 2 Leonard B. Sand et al., Modern Federal Jury Instructions ¶ 41.01, at 41- 7 (1996) (providing definition of “kill”). The record indicates that there was undisputed expert testimony that the decedents died from blood loss that resulted from the gunshot wounds. Rec. vol. XII, at 21. The court also gave carefully phrased pattern instructions defining the key terms of each element. See Rec. vol. XIII, at 15, 20-21, 23-24. After carefully reviewing the record and examining the jury instructions as a whole, we believe that the instructions properly informed the jury that it could only find Mr. Swallow guilty of murder on each count if it concluded that he proximately caused the victim’s death.