Opinion ID: 1279824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Exclusion of the Opinions on Deliberate and Premeditate.

Text: Exclusion of psychiatric opinion testimony on the question whether Reynolds' shooting Dodge was a deliberate and premeditated act, Reynolds argues, constitutes a violation of a defendant's sixth amendment right to present relevant evidence in defense to a criminal charge. See Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967). To evaluate Reynolds' argument, we first review the elements for the crime of first degree murder: A person commits murder in the first degree if he kills another person ... purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice. & sect; 28-303(1). Purposely, as an element of first degree murder, means intentionally. State v. Batiste, 231 Neb. 481, 437 N.W.2d 125 (1989). In Batiste, we also stated: Deliberate malice and premeditated malice are separate and distinct elements of the crime of murder in the first degree. Pembrook v. State, 117 Neb. 759, 222 N.W. 956 (1929). Deliberate means not suddenly, not rashly; but deliberation requires that the defendant considered the probable consequences of his or her act before doing the act. See NJI 14.10. Cf. Pembrook v. State, supra (for origin of language). A person kills with deliberate malice when he or she, without just cause or excuse, kills another not suddenly or rashly, but after considering the probable consequence of doing the act. Premeditated means to have formed a design to commit an act before it is done.... A person kills with premeditated malice if before the act causing the death occurs, he or she has formed the intent or determined to kill the victim without legal justification. 231 Neb. at 491, 437 N.W.2d at 132. See, also, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-302(3) (Reissue 1989): Premeditation shall mean a design to do something before it is done. At trial and on appeal, Reynolds has admitted that he shot and killed Craig Dodge. However, Reynolds asserts that he did not kill Dodge with deliberate and premeditated malice and, thus, did not commit first degree murder. To support this assertion, Reynolds desired to have Drs. Baldwin and Kenney testify that he did not deliberate and premeditate shooting Dodge. A syllogism provides an insight into Reynolds' assigned error based on exclusion of the psychiatric testimony: One who is impulsive does not deliberate and premeditate an act by weighing the consequences of the act. Terry Reynolds is impulsive. Therefore, Terry Reynolds did not deliberate or premeditate the act of shooting Craig Dodge. Reynolds contends that Drs. Baldwin and Kenney, testifying before the jury, should have been allowed to express the conclusion in the foregoing syllogism, whereas the trial court excluded the psychiatrists' conclusory opinions concerning deliberation and premeditation in Reynolds' shooting Dodge.