Opinion ID: 1366220
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Premeditation and the Felony-murder Special Circumstance.

Text: (15) Defendant maintains that as a matter of statutory construction, the felony-murder special circumstance requires proof that the killing was wilful, deliberate, and premeditated. He relies on a single element of our statutory construction in Carlos v. Superior Court, supra, 35 Cal.3d 131, involving certain anomalies in the statute. However, we reconsidered the implication of these anomalies and rejected our former conclusions in People v. Anderson, supra, 43 Cal.3d 1104, 1144. Therefore, defendant's reliance on Carlos is misplaced. Defendant has pointed to no evidence that the voters who enacted the 1978 death penalty law intended to retain the requirement of the 1977 death penalty law that a felony murder be premeditated in order to qualify as a special circumstance. In the absence of such evidence, the fact that the 1978 initiative deleted the premeditation requirement of the 1977 death penalty law provides an overwhelming inference that the voters intended to eliminate the premeditation requirement. (Cf. People v. Weidert (1985) 39 Cal.3d 836, 844 [218 Cal. Rptr. 57, 705 P.2d 380].) Accordingly we decline to interpret paragraph 17 of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (a) as requiring proof of premeditation or deliberation.