Opinion ID: 1303713
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Faulty Premeditation Instructions

Text: At the second special circumstances trial, the court instructed the jury regarding the issues of premeditation and deliberation. (Former CALJIC No. 8.86.) Taking a single sentence out of context, defendant argues that the trial court essentially directed the jury to find that the Bert murder was willful, deliberate and premeditated. The point is frivolous. The sentence in question (It was willful, deliberate and premeditated murder) is contained in a paragraph explaining in the abstract the prerequisites of a finding of premeditated murder, i.e., one formed under preexisting reflection and not under the sudden heat of passion or condition precluding the idea of deliberation. It was willful, deliberate and premeditated murder. It is true that the instruction evidently was garbled somewhat, either in reading it to the jury, or in transcribing its text for the record. But any confusion was necessarily eliminated when the trial court subsequently correctly reread the instruction. The jury could not have been misled into thinking that the court was directing a finding of premeditation in this case.