Opinion ID: 1115418
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Miller Case

Text: On June 2, 1985, the defendant Ronald S. Miller shot and killed his estranged wife's boyfriend. He was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, the crime of premeditated murder in the first degree. In a 1988 decision, this court allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea because he had been misinformed as to the potential sentence. [2] At Mr. Miller's subsequent trial, the trial judge instructed the jury on murder in the first degree, as charged, and on the lesser crimes of murder in the second degree and manslaughter. Although the defendant Miller admitted killing the victim, he contended he did not intend or premeditate the death. In the concluding instruction (instruction 17) in that case, the trial judge instructed the jury based upon WPIC 155.00 in its unrevised form, 11 Wash. Prac., Washington Pattern Jury Instructions 565-66 (1977). The portion of instruction 17 which is the basis for the Miller appeal states: You will be furnished with all of the exhibits admitted in evidence, these instructions and verdict forms A, B, and C. You must fill in the blank provided in each verdict form the words not guilty or the word guilty, according to the decision you reach. If you find the defendant guilty on verdict form A, do not use verdict forms B or C. If you find the defendant not guilty on verdict form A, fill in the blank provided in verdict form B the words not guilty or the word guilty according to the decision you reach. If you find the defendant guilty on verdict form B, do not use verdict form C. If you find the defendant not guilty on verdict form B, fill in the blank provided in verdict form C the words not guilty or the word guilty according to the decision you reach. If you believe the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of either murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or manslaughter in the first degree but have a reasonable doubt as to which of the crimes the defendant is guilty, it is your duty to find the defendant not guilty on verdict form A and to find the defendant guilty of a lower degree on verdict form B or C; and if you believe the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of either murder in the second degree or manslaughter in the first degree but have a reasonable doubt as to which of those crimes the defendant is guilty, it is your duty to find the defendant not guilty on verdict form B and to find the defendant guilty of a lower degree on verdict form C. Since this is a criminal case, all twelve of you must agree for you to return a verdict. When all of you have so agreed, fill in the proper form of a verdict or verdicts to express your decision. Instruction 17 (part). Defense counsel excepted to this instruction on the basis that under it the jury could not return a verdict on one of the lesser offenses until it either unanimously found the defendant not guilty of murder in the first degree or until the trial judge declared the jury deadlocked on the charged crime. The trial judge opined that State v. Taylor, 109 Wn.2d 438, 745 P.2d 510 (1987) prohibits a jury from delivering a verdict on a lesser offense until it has reached unanimity on a greater charge. Defense counsel had proposed that the following instruction (part) be given in lieu of the trial court's instruction 17: You will be furnished with all of the exhibits admitted into evidence, these instructions, and three verdict forms A and B and C. When completing the verdict forms, you will first consider the crime of murder in the first degree as charged. If you unanimously agree on a verdict, you must fill in the blank provided in verdict form A the words not guilty or the word guilty, according to the decision you reach. If you find the defendant guilty on verdict form A, do not use verdict form B or C. If you find the defendant not guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree or if after full and careful consideration of the evidence you cannot agree on that crime, you will consider the lesser crime of murder in the second degree. If you unanimously agree on a verdict, you must fill in the blank provided in verdict form B the words not guilty or the word guilty, according to the decision you reach. If you find the defendant guilty on verdict form B, do not use verdict form C. If you find the defendant not guilty of the crime of murder in the second degree, or if after full and careful consideration of the evidence you cannot agree on that crime you will consider the lesser crime of manslaughter in the first degree. If you unanimously agree on a verdict, you must fill in the blank provided in verdict form C the words not guilty or the word guilty, according to the decision you reach. Since this is a criminal case, each of you must agree for you to return a verdict. When all of you have so agreed, fill in the appropriate verdict form to express your decision. (Italics ours.) This proposed defense instruction is essentially [3] based upon WPIC 155.01 as revised after State v. Watkins, 31 Wn. App. 485, 643 P.2d 465 (1982), aff'd, 99 Wn.2d 166, 660 P.2d 1117 (1983). 11 Wash. Prac., Washington Pattern Jury Instructions 330-31 (Supp. 1986). The trial court supplied the Miller jury with three verdict forms, one for murder in the first degree (form A), one for murder in the second degree (form B) and one for manslaughter (form C). Verdict form B stated: Verdict Form B We, the jury, find the defendant RONALD S. MILLER, not guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree, as charged, and find the defendant, ____________________________________________________, (write in not guilty or guilty) of the crime of murder in the second degree. This form is based on former WPIC 180.05, 11 Wash. Prac., Washington Pattern Jury Instructions 577 (1977). Defense counsel instead proposed a revised verdict form B which stated: We, the jury, having found the defendant Ronald S. Miller not guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged, or being unable to unanimously agree as to that charge, find the defendant ____ of the crime of murder in the second degree. (Italics ours.) This form was based upon revised WPIC 180.05. 11 Wash. Prac., Washington Pattern Jury Instructions 336 (Supp. 1986). The trial court in Miller also gave an instruction 10 which was basically the same as instruction 10 given in Labanowski. It informed the jury as follows: When a crime has been proven against a person and there exists a reasonable doubt as to which of two or more degrees or crimes that person is guilty, he or she shall be convicted only of the lowest degree of crime. Instruction 10 (part). The jury found the defendant Miller guilty of murder in the first degree. On appeal, the defendant argued an evidentiary issue as well as the claimed instructional error issue. In an unpublished opinion by a divided court, the Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and held that since the jury could consider all lesser included offenses before rendering a verdict on the greater offense the instructions were not erroneous. As in Labanowski, the Court of Appeals in Miller declined to decide whether a jury should be allowed to return a verdict on a lesser offense prior to reaching unanimity on the crime charged. The defendant Miller has abandoned the evidentiary issue in this court and argues that the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that it must unanimously acquit the defendant of the crime charged before it could render a verdict on the lesser offenses. Both of these appeals present us with one basic issue.