Opinion ID: 2570814
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Instruction and Arguments

Text: The premeditation instruction given in this case tracks substantially with the pattern instruction defining premeditation, PIK Crim.3d 56.04(b). However, it contains some additional language, and it is this additional language to which Appleby objects. The instruction, with the language added to the PIK instruction in italics, stated: Premeditation means to have thought the matter over beforehand. In other words, to have formed the design or intent to kill before the killing. Stated another way, premeditation is the process of thinking about a proposed killing before engaging in the act that kills another person, but premeditation doesn't have to be present before a fight, quarrel, or struggle begins. There is no specific time period required for premeditation, but it does require more that the instantaneous, intentional act of taking another person's life. Premeditation can occur at any time during a violent episode that ultimately causes the victim's death.  (Emphasis added.) Appleby concedes in his appellate brief that the additional statements in the trial court's definition of premeditation are correct statements of law. See State v. Gunby, 282 Kan. 39, Syl. ¶ 9, 144 P.3d 647 (2006) (Premeditation is the process of thinking about a proposed killing before engaging in the homicidal conduct, but it does not have to be present before a fight, quarrel, or struggle begins. Death by manual strangulation can be strong evidence of premeditation.); State v. Scott, 271 Kan. 103, 108, 21 P.3d 516, cert. denied 534 U.S. 1047, 122 S.Ct. 630, 151 L.Ed.2d 550 (2001) (Premeditation does not have to be present before a fight, quarrel, or struggle begins.); see also State v. Jones, 279 Kan. 395, 404, 109 P.3d 1158 (2005) (citing Scott, 271 Kan. at 111, 21 P.3d 516, for the rationale that the jury could find defendant's state of mind changed from acting with intent to acting with premeditation at any time during the violent episode before he caused the victim's death, including at any time during the strangulation.). In fact, the record reflects that the trial court relied on Gunby, 282 Kan. 39, 144 P.3d 647, which was also a strangulation case, in drafting the instruction. The State suggests the trial judge in this case believed his instruction was helpful to the jury to give them additional general rules that were not arguing one side or another of the case. As Appleby notes, however, in Gunby the additional language was used in answering a question from the jury, not as part of the initial instruction to the jury. Appleby argues that including the language in the initial instruction unduly favored the State's theory of the case. More fundamentally, he argues it was per se error to deviate from the pattern instruction.