Opinion ID: 166399
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to give voluntary-intoxication and lesser-included-offense instructions

Text: 49 Evidence at trial indicated that Mr. Thornburg was intoxicated at the time of the homicides. Marvin Matheson testified that Mr. Thornburg injected himself with crank at Poteet's house. Tr. III at 93-95. Mr. Thornburg testified that he had been drinking heavily on the day of the murders, and two other witnesses testified that he was extremely intoxicated or high that evening. Under Oklahoma law voluntary intoxication may be a defense to first-degree murder if the person was incapable of forming [malice aforethought] because of [his] intoxication. Okla. Unif. Jury Instructions-Criminal 8-36; see Crawford v. State, 840 P.2d 627, 638 (Okla.Crim.App.1992). 50 Mr. Thornburg's trial counsel failed to request a voluntary-intoxication instruction, but he argues that the trial court should have sua sponte instructed the jury on the matter. The OCCA reviewed the failure to give such an instruction for plain error and affirmed. In light of Mr. Thornburg's proffered alibi defense, it held that while [an] Appellant is entitled to an instruction on his theory of defense, he is not entitled to instruction on every possible theory of defense. Thornburg, 985 P.2d at 1243. 51 Mr. Thornburg asserts that he was entitled to a voluntary-intoxication instruction despite his alibi defense. He relies on Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58, 63-64, 108 S.Ct. 883, 99 L.Ed.2d 54 (1988), for the proposition that a criminal defendant has a right to raise inconsistent defenses if they are supported by the evidence. Even accepting that proposition, however, we reject his claim. 52 We review the district court's failure to give an instruction sua sponte only for the denial of fundamental fairness and due process. Spears v. Mullin, 343 F.3d 1215, 1244 (10th Cir.2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 909, 124 S.Ct. 1615, 158 L.Ed.2d 255 (2004). A voluntary-intoxication instruction was not necessary for the jury to acquit Mr. Thornburg because of intoxication. The instruction would not alter the elements of the offense. It would merely alert the jurors (and emphasize to them) that one reason he might lack the requisite intent is that he was intoxicated. Although he claims that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on the voluntary-intoxication defense relieved the state of its burden of proving specific intent beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury was informed that it could convict him of first-degree murder only if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that he possessed malice aforethought. And the trial court provided the following definition of malice aforethought: 53 `Malice aforethought' means a deliberate intention to take away the life of a human being. As used in the Instructions, `malice aforethought' does not mean hatred, spite or ill-will. The deliberate intent to take a human life must be formed before the act and must exist at the time a homicidal act is committed. No particular length of time is required for formation of this deliberate intent. The intent may have been formed instantly before the commission of the act. 54 Instruction 9, St. Ct. R. Vol. III at 458. The jury was not prohibited from evaluating Mr. Thornburg's intent in light of his intoxication. The jury could have heard the evidence of intoxication, decided he lacked the requisite intent, and acquitted him. A voluntary-intoxication instruction might have helped him, but it was by no means essential to the jury's considering the matter. See Hill v. Mitchell, 400 F.3d 308, 322-23 (6th Cir.2005) (absence of intoxication instruction does not establish that state failed to prove mental element of crime beyond a reasonable doubt); see also Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 153-55, 97 S.Ct. 1730, 52 L.Ed.2d 203 (1977) (trial court's failure to give instruction explaining causation element did not justify reversal); Foster v. Ward, 182 F.3d 1177, 1193-94 (10th Cir.1999) (trial court's failure to give unrequested cautionary instruction on accomplice testimony did not render trial fundamentally unfair). In short, failure to give an unrequested voluntary-intoxication instruction did not render Mr. Thornburg's trial fundamentally unfair.
55 Mr. Thornburg also contends that the trial court should have sua sponte instructed on the lesser included offense of first-degree manslaughter. See Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980) (defendant entitled to requested lesser-included-offense instruction when evidence warrants it). But this court has repeatedly held that a state prisoner seeking federal habeas relief may not prevail on a Beck claim as to a lesser included instruction that he or she failed to request at trial. Hooks v. Ward, 184 F.3d 1206, 1234 (10th Cir.1999); Spears v. Mullin, 343 F.3d at 1245 (failure to request lesser-included-offense instruction precludes habeas relief). 56 To the extent that Mr. Thornburg argues that Oklahoma's capital-punishment statute is unconstitutional because Beck requires a lesser-included-offense instruction for every capital charge, we disagree. Beck says only that a court must provide a lesser-included-offense instruction if the evidence supports the lesser included offense. See Beck, 447 U.S. at 630, 100 S.Ct. 2382. The Supreme Court foreclosed Mr. Thornburg's present argument in Hopkins v. Reeves, 524 U.S. 88, 118 S.Ct. 1895, 141 L.Ed.2d 76 (1998), when it held that Beck did not require state trial courts to instruct juries on offenses that are not lesser included offenses of the charged crime under state law, even if the jury is left with only the option of convicting or acquitting. Id. at 90, 118 S.Ct. 1895. There the defendant was convicted of felony murder, a crime for which second-degree murder and manslaughter were not lesser included offenses under Nebraska law. Because there was no lesser included offense that the evidence would support, the trial court's failure to offer a lesser-included-offense instruction did not result in any constitutional error. 57 Here, the OCCA held that [t]he evidence did not warrant instructions on First-Degree Manslaughter as there was no evidence of adequate provocation which is required to support a conviction for this crime. Thornburg, 985 P.2d at 1243. Because Oklahoma's manslaughter statute as interpreted by the OCCA on this occasion requires evidence of provocation — evidence that was not present in this case — the failure to give the instruction did not violate Beck.