Opinion ID: 2543191
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 25

Heading: Jury Instructions About Premeditation and Impaired Capacity

Text: Defendant claims the trial court should have instructed the jury sua sponte on the issue of premeditation and deliberation, because whether or not defendant committed premeditated murder, or nonpremeditated felony murder as he professed in his plea, was a critical issue at the penalty phase. He contends this failure to instruct violated his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The trial court is required to instruct on general principles of law relevant to the case. ( People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 154, 77 Cal.Rptr.2d 870, 960 P.2d 1094.) In the present case, the jury was not required to make a determination on premeditation and deliberation. Indeed, a capital jury during the penalty phase is neither statutorily authorized nor constitutionally required to make any findings regarding the factors in aggravation and mitigation. (See People v. Vieira, supra, 35 Cal.4th at p. 303, 25 Cal.Rptr.3d 337, 106 P.3d 990.) Instead, it is required only to weigh aggravating and mitigating evidence, including the circumstances of the crime, in order to arrive at a penalty determination. There is no reason why the jury should have had to view evidence about how the murder took place through the filter of a legal definition of premeditation and deliberation in order to make its penalty determination. The lack of a premeditation instruction was not error. Defendant also claims the trial court should have elaborated on section 190.3, factor (h), which states that the jury must consider [w]hether or not at the time of the offense the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the, requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, or the affects of intoxication. Defendant argues that the trial court should have given an instruction, sua sponte, that would have made clear that the impairment referred to in the above instruction specifically could impair the defendant's ability to deliberate. Again, because the jury was not required to find whether or not defendant had deliberated, such an instruction focusing on deliberation was not required or, in fact, appropriate. Defense counsel at trial also requested an instruction elaborating on section 190.3, factor (h), and defendant on appeal contends it was error not to deliver at least part of that instruction. The portion of the requested instruction that defendant contends should have been delivered stated: Mental or emotional disturbance may result [from] any cause or may exist without apparent cause. For this mitigating circumstance to exist, it is sufficient that ... the defendant's mind or emotions were disturbed, that is, interrupted or interfered with, [from] any cause whether [from] consumption of drugs, mental illness, or other cause, and that he was under the influence of that disturbance when he killed Ms. Breck. A person would be under the influence of a mental or emotional disturbance if a mental or emotional condition existed which included [ sic ] his conduct so as to make it different than it otherwise would have been. [H] So if you are satisfied from the evidence that at the time of the murder of Ms. Breck, the defendant was under the influence of [a] mental or emotional disturbance, from any cause, it would be your duty to find this as a mitigating circumstance. We find nothing in the above rather confusing instruction that would have clarified the instruction already given pursuant to section 190.3, factor (h). The trial court did not err in refusing such instruction. Defendant also claims the trial court erred in failing to instruct sua sponte according to CALJIC No. 2.02 regarding the use of circumstantial evidence to prove whether or not defendant possessed a particular mental state. That instruction is intended for a jury that is required to find a mental state as an element of a crime. (See People v. Cole (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1158, 1222, 17 Cal.Rptr.3d 532, 95 P.3d 811.) As explained above, the jury was not required to find at the penalty phase that defendant possessed a particular mental state during the murder, such as premeditation and deliberation. The trial court did not err in failing to give this instruction.