Opinion ID: 1202382
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Intent to Kill as an Element of Felony-murder Special Circumstance

Text: The jury in this case was instructed: If defendant Thomas Martin Thompson was not the actual killer, it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, solicited, requested, or assisted the actual killer in the commission of the murder in the first degree before you are permitted to find the alleged special circumstance of that first degree murder to be true as to defendant Thomas Martin Thompson. (Italics added.) The court rejected an instruction proposed by the defense which would have specifically required the jury to find intent to kill. Under our decision in Carlos v. Superior Court (1983) 35 Cal.3d 131 [197 Cal. Rptr. 79, 672 P.2d 862], failure to give such an instruction would have been error as it permitted the jury to find the special circumstance true without necessarily finding that defendant had the intent to kill. ( Id. at pp. 153-154.) (14) We have recently concluded, however, that intent to kill is not an element of felony-murder special circumstances as to the actual killer. Only where defendant is an aider and abettor rather than the actual killer must intent to kill be proved. ( People v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104, 1147 [240 Cal. Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306]; see also Tison v. Arizona (1987) 481 U.S. 137 [95 L.Ed.2d 127, 143-144, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 1688].) Under the prosecution's theory, defendant was the perpetrator. According to the defense, defendant slept through the killing which was accomplished by David Leitch. Aiding and abetting was not a theory pursued by the parties or instructed upon by the court in this case. [23] There was therefore no error in failing to instruct on intent to kill as an element of felony-murder special circumstances.