Opinion ID: 155680
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: l esser -i ncluded o ffense

Text: Mr. Duvall next contends that the district court violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights by instructing the jury only on first degree murder 3 3 Under Oklahoma law, “[a] person commits murder in the first degree when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought causes the death of another human being. Malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life of a human being, which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof.” Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 701.7(A) (West 1983). The design to effect death “is inferred from the fact of killing, unless the circumstances raise a reasonable doubt whether such design existed.” Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 702 (West 1983). Moreover, “[a] design to effect death sufficient to constitute murder may be formed instantly before committing the act by which it is (continued...) - 32 - and refusing to instruct the jury on second degree murder 4 and first degree manslaughter. 5 In Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 638 (1980), the Supreme Court held that in a capital case, due process requires that a jury be given the option of convicting a defendant on a lesser included noncapital offense if the evidence would support conviction on that offense. The Court in Beck sought to avoid presenting juries with a “death or nothing” choice between conviction of a capital crime and finding the defendant not guilty. Id. Such a choice, the Court explained, is unacceptable because “the unavailability of the third option of convicting on a lesser included offense may encourage the jury to convict for an impermissible reason—its belief that the defendant is guilty of some serious crime and should be punished.” Id. at 642. The risk of such a choice “cannot be tolerated in a case in which the defendant’s life is at stake.” Id. at 637; see also 3 (...continued) carried into execution.” Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 703 (West 1983). 4 A homicide constitutes second degree murder “[w]hen perpetrated by an act imminently dangerous to another person and evincing a depraved mind, regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual.” Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 701.8(1) (West 1983). 5 A person commits manslaughter in the first degree when the homicide is “perpetrated without a design to effect death, and in a heat of passion, but in a cruel and unusual manner, or by means of a dangerous weapon; unless it is committed under such circumstances as constitute excusable or justifiable homicide.” Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, § 711(2) (West 1983). - 33 - Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 610 (1982); Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 646 (1991); Trujillo v. Sullivan, 815 F.2d 597, 601 (10th Cir. 1987). A state, however, is not required to “create a noncapital murder offense for every set of facts under which a murder may be committed.” Hatch v. State, 58 F.3d 1447, 1454 (10th Cir. 1995). A trial court must instruct the jury on a noncapital offense as defined by state law only if the evidence would have supported such a verdict. Beck, 447 U.S. at 627. Mr. Duvall argues that the record contains sufficient evidence to support a verdict of second degree murder or first degree manslaughter instruction. We disagree. At trial, the jury heard Mr. Duvall’s confession to law enforcement officers three days after the murder. Mr. Duvall explained that he received a telephone call from his wife at 3:00 pm on the afternoon of the murder. He stated that he was angry because she told him that she had resumed taking illegal drugs. At about 9:00 pm, he arrived at his wife’s duplex. He waited on the porch of the duplex next door. At about 10:30 pm, after the neighbors left, he knocked on his wife’s door. In his confession, Mr. Duvall stated: Karla came to the door and said, where’s Mark. I said, he’s at mom’s, and I just grabbed her by the throat and threw her down and grabbed the ashtray. I hit her in the head with it, and drug her into the kitchen. Opened the drawer and grabbed a knife and stabbed her several times. She pulled the drawer out. She pulled both those drawers out, and knives and all those things all over the floor. But that didn’t--that wasn’t what killed her. She wanted me to put her in - 34 - bed--wash her off. So I took her in the shower and washed her off, and put her in the bed and suffocated her. Tr. at 616. He continued: [A]fter I took her back to bed, she asked me to help her, and I said well, Karla, I think it’s too late for that, and that’s when I--she was laying with a pillow under her head. I got the other one. I put it over her head. Tr. at 624. After reviewing the record, we find no evidence that Mr. Duvall acted in the “heat of passion” as required by section 711(2) (first degree manslaughter) or “without any premeditated design” as required by section 701.8(1) (second degree murder). Karla’s death occurred around 11:00 pm—over seven hours after she allegedly made the provoking phone call to Mr. Duvall. There is no evidence of new provocation between the time of the phone call and her death. The time between the alleged provocation and Karla’s death was sufficient for the passion of a reasonable man to cool. Moreover, Mr. Duvall made a conscious decision to suffocate his wife after washing her off in the shower. The evidence is insufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that Mr. Duvall acted without any premeditated design. Because the evidence did not support an instruction on murder in the second degree or manslaughter in the first degree, Mr. Duvall was not entitled to such an instruction. We therefore deny Mr. Duvall habeas relief on this ground. - 35 -