Opinion ID: 2520113
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The PIK definition of premeditation has changed since this case was tried.

Text: The trial court's jury instruction No. 6 on premeditation followed PIK Crim. 3d 56.04(b) (1994 Supp.) stating: Premeditation means to have thought the matter over beforehand. The court denied the defendant's request to add the following sentence to the jury instruction on premeditation: A defendant premeditates a crime when he forms a design or intent before the act; that is, when the defendant contrived, planned or schemed beforehand to murder the victim. The defendant's proposed language originally comes from State v. McGaffin, 36 Kan. 315, 13 Pac. 560 (1887). The 1994 Supplement of PIK Crim. 3d 56.04(b), which was in effect at the time of the defendant's trial, cited McGaffin as authority but did not include the language in the actual definition. The majority in State v. Saleem, 267 Kan. 100, 105, 977 P.2d 921 (1999), approved the 1994 PIK definition of premeditation and found that the language in McGaffin is only of historical interest. Justice Allegrucci concurred with the holding of Saleem, but disagreed with the majority on the PIK definition of premeditation. 267 Kan. at 115 (Allegrucci, J., concurring). Justice Allegrucci believed that by defining premeditation as to have thought the matter over beforehand, the majority had converted second-degree murder to first-degree murder. 267 Kan. at 115 (Allegrucci, J., concurring). In State v. Jamison, 269 Kan. 564, 7 P.3d 1204 (2000), this court again approved the 1994 version of PIK Crim. 3d 56.04(b), stating that it adequately conveys the concept that `premeditation' means something more than the instantaneous, intentional act of taking another's life. To have thought the matter over beforehand means to form a design or intent to kill before the act. 269 Kan. at 573 (citing McGaffin, 36 Kan. at 319). The 2001 Supplement of PIK Crim. 3d 56.04(b) included the McGaffin language in its revised definition of premeditation, stating: Premeditation means to have thought the matter over beforehand, in other words, to have formed the design or intent to kill before the act. Although there is no specific time period required for premeditation, the concept of premeditation requires more than the instantaneous, intentional act of taking another's life. PIK Crim. 3d 56.04(b) (2001 Supp.).