Opinion ID: 163344
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether Manslaughter Is a Lesser Included Offense

Text: 20 The State argues for the first time on appeal that while a state may allow an instruction on a lesser offense under state law, the same instruction is not necessarily mandated by due process under Beck.  Aplt. Br. at 19. The State contends that the elements test, an interpretation of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 31(c) requiring that all elements of a lesser included offense be elements of the charged offense, applies to Beck claims, and that under this test first degree manslaughter is not a necessarily included offense of first degree murder. To support its argument, the State cites Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 715-16, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989) (adopting elements test to interpret Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(c), which permits defendant to be found guilty of offense necessarily included in offense charged), and OKLA. STAT. tit. 22, § 916 (using language similar to Rule 31(c)). 21 While we do not ordinarily consider arguments raised for the first time in this court, see Rojem v. Gibson, 245 F.3d 1130, 1141 (10th Cir.2001), the argument is without merit in any event. The State relies on the Supreme Court's use in Beck of the single word element, and in so doing takes the word out of context. The Court there was not addressing the elements test for determining whether a crime is a lesser included offense; rather, the Court was pointing out the risk of failing to provide a lesser included offense instruction in a capital case. See Beck, 447 U.S. at 637, 100 S.Ct. 2382. 2 The Court's subsequent discussion in Hopkins v. Reeves, 524 U.S. 88, 96-98 & n. 6, 118 S.Ct. 1895, 141 L.Ed.2d 76 (1998), leaves no doubt that the availability of a lesser included offense instruction in a state criminal trial is a matter of state law. The elements test from Schmuck is therefore inapplicable to this case. 22 Moreover, the State does not cite persuasive Oklahoma authority suggesting that manslaughter is not a lesser included offense of first degree murder under state law. Oklahoma consistently has treated first degree manslaughter as a lesser included offense of first degree murder. See, e.g., Hogan, 197 F.3d at 1303-04 (citing state and federal cases); Boyd v. Ward, 179 F.3d 904, 917 (10th Cir.1999) (citing Lewis v. State, 970 P.2d 1158, 1165-66 (Okla.Crim.App.1999)); see also, e.g., Lewis, 970 P.2d at 1165 (treating manslaughter as lesser included offense of first degree murder, but rejecting claim that second degree murder is lesser included offense of first degree murder); Turrentine v. State, 965 P.2d 955, 969 (Okla.Crim. App.1998) (same). 3 Accordingly, we reject the State's argument. 23