Opinion ID: 2054485
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jury Instruction on Attempted Armed Robbery.

Text: In his charge to the jury the trial judge gave a correct and detailed instruction on the elements of the crime of murder. The judge stated that the only type of murder in the first degree which was raised by the evidence was felony murder, which is murder committed in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life. G.L.c. 265, § 1. The judge correctly instructed the jury on the elements of armed robbery, and then instructed them concerning an attempt as is reprinted below. [3] After the charge, defense counsel raised a question about the adequacy of the latter instruction, but did not object or take an exception to this aspect of the charge. This point was not included in the defendant's assignments of error. Therefore the question of the sufficiency of this instruction is not properly before us except under G.L.c. 278, § 33E. Commonwealth v. McDuffee, 379 Mass. 353, 357 (1979). The defendant asks that we undertake review on this point under § 33E, and reverse the conviction on the ground that the instruction on attempt was so inadequate as to give rise to a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice. We find no such risk here. The practice of instructing a jury by use of reference to the testimony in evidence in the case, which was employed by the judge here, has long been used in this Commonwealth. While it is preferable that the jury be instructed with particularity on the elements of the offense charged, ordinarily where the testimony of the witnesses is unanimous concerning what transpired, and where these facts, if believed by the jury, would clearly constitute the crime charged in all its legal elements, such a shorthand method of instruction would not amount to a lessening of the Commonwealth's burden to prove all of those elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Where intent is a necessary element of the crime charged, and there is no direct evidence of the defendant's intent at the time of the crime, the jury are permitted, but not required, to infer the element of criminal intent from the circumstances. An instruction which states merely that, if the jurors believe the evidence concerning the objective events of the crime, they would be warranted in finding that the crime has occurred, may be deficient in failing to instruct the jury that the Commonwealth must prove the element of intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Such an instruction may in effect transform a permissible inference of intent into a mandatory presumption arising from proof of certain underlying facts and circumstances, and, thus, run afoul of the constitutional requirement of Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684 (1975), and its progeny, that the Commonwealth must prove all necessary elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant argues that the present charge did not require the jury to find that the defendant intended to commit the crime of armed robbery at the time of the alleged attempt, and that therefore it was left open to the jury to convict the defendant in the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt of this necessary element. We do not agree. The judge stated in his charge that, since the Commonwealth's theory was that Correia did not fire the shot but was an active participant in a joint venture involved in an attempted armed robbery, the jury must determine whether Correia was actively engaged in, participating with another person in the commission or attempted commission of an armed robbery. The instruction continued as appears in the margin below. [4] The judge emphasized that mere presence at the commission of a crime was not enough to find the defendant responsible for commission of the killing, but that the jury must find complicity and active involvement of Correia in the attempted armed robbery, in the course of which a killing occurred, in order to find him responsible for the murder. This instruction clearly had the effect of putting before the jury the defendant's level of voluntary and active participation in the armed robbery attempt at the time the guard was killed as a necessary element of the crime charged. Since this element clearly encompasses the defendant's intent to commit an armed robbery at the time of the attempt to rob and the shooting, there was no error on this ground when the charge is taken as a whole. Commonwealth v. Medina, 380 Mass. 565, 577-578 (1980), and cases cited.