Opinion ID: 1562242
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Elements of Second-Degree Murder

Text: The defendant argues that the trial justice committed reversible error when she declined to instruct the jury that premeditation is an element of second-degree murder. He cites a line of cases from this Court in which we either impliedly or expressly have stated that premeditation is an element of second-degree murder. See, e.g., State v. Amazeen, 526 A.2d 1268, 1271 (R.I.1987); State v. Crough, 89 R.I. 338, 353, 152 A.2d 644, 652 (1959); State v. Fenik, 45 R.I. 309, 315, 121 A. 218, 221 (1923). We review jury instructions on a de novo basis. State v. Graham, 941 A.2d 848, 855 (R.I.2008); State v. Imbruglia, 913 A.2d 1022, 1031 (R.I.2007). General Laws 1956 § 8-2-38 requires the trial justice to instruct the jury on the law to be applied to the issues raised by the parties. State v. Lynch, 770 A.2d 840, 846 (R.I. 2001). There is no requirement for particular words to be used in a charge. Id. (citing State v. Mastracchio, 546 A.2d 165, 173 (R.I.1988)). Instead, [t]he trial justice may instruct the jury in his or her own words as long as the charge sufficiently addresses the requested instructions and correctly states the applicable law. Id. (quoting Mastracchio, 546 A.2d at 173). Thus, in evaluating the adequacy of jury instructions, [w]e will not review a single phrase or sentence in isolation, State v. Fernandes, 783 A.2d 913, 916 (R.I.2001), but rather will examine it in the context of the whole instruction to determine whether it would have confused or misled the jury. Imbruglia, 913 A.2d at 1031. Section 11-23-1 defines murder as [t]he unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought and separates it into two degrees. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing    is murder in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree. [4] Id. In other words, murder in the second-degree `is any killing of a human being committed with malice aforethought that is not defined by statute as first-degree murder.' State v. Texieira, 944 A.2d 132, 142 (R.I. 2008) (quoting State v. Parkhurst, 706 A.2d 412, 421 (R.I.1998)). Although § 11-23-1 imports the old common-law definition of murder as a killing committed with malice aforethought, its delineation of murder into degrees is a statutory creation. See State v. Mattatall, 603 A.2d 1098, 1105-06 (R.I.1992) (citing State v. Pine, 524 A.2d 1104, 1107 (R.I. 1987)). Unfortunately, however, § 11-23-1 goes no further in distinguishing between first- and second-degree murder or in defining such terms as deliberate or premeditated. The onus, therefore, has fallen on the judiciary to interpret this distinction; admittedly, we have not fulfilled our duty in that regard with the greatest clarity. We hope that this opinion will rectify any confusion about the distinction between first- and second-degree murder. As § 11-23-1 indicates, a murder must be willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated for it to rise to the level of first-degree murder. Because § 11-23-1 defines first-degree murder as a willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing, and second-degree murder as [a]ny other murder, it necessarily follows that second-degree murder does not encompass willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killings. Rather, the only requirement for a killing to qualify as second-degree murder is that it be committed with malice aforethought. See id. We have defined malice aforethought as an unjustified disregard for the possibility of death or great bodily harm and an extreme indifference to the sanctity of human life. Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142 (quoting State v. McGranahan, 415 A.2d 1298, 1302 (R.I.1980)). Malice aforethought arises either from an express intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm or from a hardness of the heart, cruelty, wickedness of disposition, recklessness of consequence, and a mind dispassionate of social duty. [5] Id. (quoting McGranahan, 415 A.2d at 1302). Thus, we have recognized three theories of second-degree murder, each grounded in a different aspect of malice aforethought. State v. Iovino, 554 A.2d 1037, 1039 (R.I.1989). The first, which is the theory upon which the trial justice instructed the jury in this case, involves those killings in which the defendant formed a momentary intent to kill contemporaneous with the homicide. See Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142, 142 n. 13; State v. Sosa, 839 A.2d 519, 527 (R.I.2003); State v. Barrett, 768 A.2d 929, 944 (R.I.2001). A second theory includes felony murder for inherently dangerous felonies that are not expressly listed within the statutory definition of first-degree murder. Parkhurst, 706 A.2d at 421; see also State v. Vorgvongsa, 692 A.2d 1194, 1196 (R.I. 1997). Finally, second-degree murder may be charged where the defendant killed with wanton recklessness or conscious disregard for the possibility of death or of great bodily harm. Parkhurst, 706 A.2d at 421; see also Vorgvongsa, 692 A.2d at 1196; Iovino, 554 A.2d at 1039. Again, the issue in this case is the distinction between the premeditation characteristic of first-degree murder and the momentary intent to kill involved in second-degree murder. Regrettably, our overly liberal use of the term premeditation in some past decisions has contributed to a certain amount of confusion regarding the required elements of second-degree murder. As defendant correctly notes, on various occasions we either have implied or expressly stated that premeditation is an element of second-degree murder. See, e.g., Tarvis v. Moran, 551 A.2d 699, 702 (R.I.1988); Amazeen, 526 A.2d at 1271; Crough, 89 R.I. at 353, 152 A.2d at 652. Specifically, we have indicated that premeditation is an aspect of malice aforethought applicable to both degrees of murder, see, e.g., Mattatall, 603 A.2d at 1106; Iovino, 554 A.2d at 1039, and that the distinction between first- and second-degree murder lies in the extent of premeditation involved in the killing. See, e.g., Tarvis, 551 A.2d at 702; Amazeen, 526 A.2d at 1271; Crough, 89 R.I. at 353, 152 A.2d at 652; Fenik, 45 R.I. at 315, 121 A. at 221. On other occasions, however, we correctly have excluded the word premeditation from our definition of second-degree murder and instead used the term intent. See, e.g., Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142; State v. Grabowski, 644 A.2d 1282, 1285 (R.I.1994); State v. Clark, 423 A.2d 1151, 1161 (R.I.1980). Despite this semantic incongruity, we nonetheless have remained consistent in our application of the legal principle underlying the distinction between first- and second-degree murder. In all of our cases, regardless of the terminology employed, we have acted in accordance with § 11-23-1 and have held that the distinction between first-degree and momentary-intent-based second-degree murder is the duration of the defendant's intent to kill. See, e.g., Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142, 142 n. 13; Crough, 89 R.I. at 353, 152 A.2d at 652; Fenik, 45 R.I. at 315, 121 A. at 221. First-degree murder requires that the defendant harbored a more-than-momentary intent to kill prior to committing the homicidein essence, that he or she acted with premeditation. Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142; Vorgvongsa, 692 A.2d at 1196. In contrast, the momentary-intent theory of second-degree murder involves a fleeting intent that is contemporaneous with the murder. See Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142-43; Sosa, 839 A.2d at 527. Let there be no further confusion: premeditation is not a requirement of malice aforethought and thus is not an element of second-degree murder. See Texieira, 944 A.2d at 142 ([I]t is well-settled in this jurisdiction that `the distinction between murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree is that murder in the first degree requires premeditation.' (quoting Vorgvongsa, 692 A.2d at 1196)). We believe that our holding is consistent with the manner in which other jurisdictions have interpreted similar murder statutes. Like § 11-23-1, the relevant portions of the murder statutes in California, North Carolina, and Idaho define murder generally as an unlawful homicide committed with malice aforethought. See Cal.Penal Code § 187 (West 2008); Idaho Code Ann. § 18-4001 (Michie 2004); State v. Vance, 328 N.C. 613, 403 S.E.2d 495, 501 (1991). Further, they specifically distinguish first-degree murder, as do we, as including willful, deliberate, and premeditated killings and define second-degree murder, as do we, as encompassing all other murders. See Cal.Penal Code § 189 (West 2008); Idaho Code Ann. § 18-4003 (Michie 2004); N.C. Gen.Stat. § 14-17 (LexisNexis 2007). In interpreting such statutes, courts in each of these jurisdictions likewise have held that premeditation is not an element of second-degree murder. See People v. Romero, 44 Cal.4th 386, 79 Cal.Rptr.3d 334, 187 P.3d 56, 70 (2008); State v. Dillon, 93 Idaho 698, 471 P.2d 553, 569 (1970) (The district court's instruction    defined `malice aforethought' as `malice and premeditation.' This instruction should not have been given, because `premeditation' is the word used to denote a mental element which distinguishes murder in the first degree from murder in the second degree   .); State v. Melton, 307 N.C. 370, 298 S.E.2d 673, 677 (1983) (Premeditation and deliberation are not elements of murder in the second degree.). In the case at bar, the trial justice correctly instructed the jury on the elements of second-degree murder and its distinction from murder in the first degree. Before discussing the degrees of murder, she explained, consistent with § 11-23-1, that [m]urder generally is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. The trial justice then explained that, in order to convict defendant of first-degree murder, the jury would have to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he had killed his wife willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation. After stating that second-degree murder does not require proof of premeditation or deliberation, the trial justice then proceeded to instruct on the momentary-intent theory: If a person's conscious intent or design to kill existed only amount [ sic ] momentarily or fleetingly, or if you are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that it existed for more than a moment or deliberately, it is second degree murder. On the other hand, if such a conscious design or intent existed for more than a mere moment and was the product of the deliberation, then the crime rises to the level of first degree murder. This instruction is entirely consistent with the momentary-intent theory of second-degree murder that we have recognized as inherent in § 11-23-1. The instruction clearly distinguished for the jury the momentary-intent concept from the premeditation required for first-degree murder. There was no error.