Opinion ID: 1946069
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the court erred in refusing to properly instruct the jury on the elements of capital murder.

Text: It is appellant's contention that the trial court committed reversible error in refusing Instruction D-3 which defines malice aforethought. That instruction reads as follows: The Court instructs the jury that malice aforethought is equivalent to premeditated design or deliberate design and is a necessary element of capital murder. The appellant argues that the indictment in this case stated that appellant wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously and with `malice aforethought' murdered a human being. Appellant reasons that since the capital murder statute does not, in and of itself, define murder, and that malice aforethought is an essential element of murder, he should have been allowed Instruction D-3. The instructions granted by the trial court on the elements of capital murder are Instructions S-2 and S-4. These instructions read as follows: INSTRUCTION S-2 The Defendant, Jimmy L. Lancaster, has been charged by an indictment with the crime of capital murder for having caused the death of Robert Kirby, knowing Robert Kirby was a Deputy Sheriff of Chickasaw County, Mississippi, acting in the line of duty. If you find from the evidence in this case beyond a reasonable doubt that the deceased, Robert Kirby, was a peace officer acting in his official capacity, by attempting to serve an arrest warrant on the Defendant, Jimmy L. Lancaster, and that the defendant knew the deceased was a peace officer and that the Defendant, Jimmy L. Lancaster, did wilfully, without authority of law, and with his deliberate design kill Robert Kirby, a living person, by shooting him and killing him, then you shall find the defendant Jimmy L. Lancaster, guilty of capital murder. In which event the form of your verdict shall be, to-wit: We, the Jury, find the Defendant Jimmy L. Lancaster guilty of capital murder. writing your verdict on a separate sheet of paper furnished you by the court for that purpose. INSTRUCTION S-4 The Court instructs the jury that murder is defined by the law of the State of Mississippi as the killing of a human being without authority of law by any means or in any manner, when done with the deliberate design to effect the death of the person killed. You are further instructed that murder becomes, and is, capital murder when it is perpetrated by killing a peace officer while such officer is acting in his official capacity, and with knowledge of the Defendant that the victim was a peace officer. You are further instructed that the term Peace Officer includes Deputy Sheriff. These two Instructions (S-2 and S-4) properly set forth the elements of capital murder. The term deliberate design as used in these instructions is synonymous to the phrase malice aforethought. Dye v. State, 127 Miss. 492, 90 So. 180 (1921). In Erving v. State, 427 So.2d 701 (Miss. 1983), we held that synonymous phrases or interchangeable words may be used in a jury instruction and the jury still be properly instructed. The term deliberate design as used in S-2 and S-4, by appellant's own admission, means the same thing as malice aforethought. Therefore, under these circumstances we see no error in refusing defendant's instruction No. 3.