Opinion ID: 2586480
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Deliberate and premeditated killing and felony murder

Text: (15) Defendant contends perfunctorily that the instructions and the prosecutor's arguments were prejudicially erroneous because they relieved the jury of the necessity of finding that the killing was a deliberate and premeditated murder. He points to no specific language, however, in either the torture-murder instruction or the prosecutor's argument and does not otherwise develop his argument. We thus conclude the issue is not properly raised. ( People v. Lindberg, supra, 45 Cal.4th at p. 51, fn. 14.) In any event, contrary to defendant's contention, it is well settled that `the words wil[l]ful, deliberate, and premeditated intent to inflict extreme and prolonged pain[] refer[] only to the requirement that before the trier of fact may convict a defendant of first degree murder by torture there must be found a cold-blooded, calculated intent to inflict such pain for one of the specified purposes. Inasmuch as the Legislature has equated this state of mind with the wil[l]ful, deliberate, premeditated intent to kill that renders other murders sufficiently culpable to be classified as first degree murder, it is unnecessary in torture-murder to also find that the killing itself was wil[l]ful, deliberate, and premeditated.' ( People v. Cole, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 1227, quoting People v. Wiley (1976) 18 Cal.3d 162, 173, fn. 4 [133 Cal.Rptr. 135, 554 P.2d 881].) (16) Next, defendant argues that the instructions and the prosecutor's arguments were prejudicial because they relieved the jury of the necessity of finding that the felony-murder rule applied. He is mistaken. As stated, torture murder is listed under section 189 as a distinct type of first degree murder. Consequently, the felony-murder rule has no application to a case tried on a theory of first degree torture murder with a torture special circumstance allegation. (See People v. Mincey (1992) 2 Cal.4th 408, 451 [6 Cal.Rptr.2d 822, 827 P.2d 388] [trial court erred in instructing on felony murder in torture-murder case].)