Opinion ID: 2630624
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Extreme Emotional Distress Manslaughter

Text: ¶ 9 Turning first to consideration under subsection (3)(a)(i), we explained in State v. Bishop, 753 P.2d 439, 471 (Utah 1988), overruled on other grounds by State v. Menzies, 889 P.2d 393 (Utah 1994), that a person suffers from an extreme emotional disturbance when he is exposed to extremely unusual and overwhelming stress such that the average reasonable person under that stress would have an extreme emotional reaction to it, as a result of which he would experience a loss of self-control and that person's reason would be overborne by intense feelings such as passion, anger, distress, grief, excessive agitation, or other similar emotions. Id. However, an extreme emotional disturbance will not serve to reduce murder to manslaughter if the actor brought about his own mental disturbance. Gardner, 789 P.2d at 282-83; § 76-5-203(3)(b)(ii). ¶ 10 One interpretation of the evidence supports the necessity for a manslaughter instruction under subsection (3)(a)(i). Brookes disclosed to police that on the morning of the altercation Christopher was irritated at him for beating Christopher at video games. As the boys went to bed, Christopher went to the kitchen and retrieved a knife that he began to throw in the air and catch. Christopher then lunged at Brookes and began poking him with the knife. The boys wrestled over control of the knife and in his anger, Brookes stabbed Christopher. Brookes also suffered stab wounds to his hand. There was evidence that Christopher had a reputation for being a hothead and losing his temper, while Brookes was known to be cooperative and peaceful. Other evidence supported the argument that Brookes had been bullied and pushed around by his peers since he was in the third grade, and that all of this came out on Chris when the boys fought over the knife. ¶ 11 Under this interpretation of the evidence, Brookes arguably did not bring about the disturbance by his own conduct, but rather Christopher initiated a violent and traumatic act by attacking Brookes with the knife. Christopher's aggressive conduct could be found by a jury to provide a reasonable excuse or explanation for Brookes' stress and rage that resulted in Brookes stabbing Christopher in the throat and chest. According to the medical examiner, the lethal wound to the victim's throat was inflicted early in the struggle, while the victim's blood pressure was still good. There is evidence that the wounds other than the two potentially fatal stabs would not have been deadly. At the end of the encounter, Brookes went to Christopher's mother's bedroom to awake her and told her twice that Christopher had tried to stab him. Brookes assisted her in her efforts to resuscitate Christopher. He was peaceful and sobbing. Police officers who responded testified that Brookes was not violent or a danger, but was cooperative and nonthreatening. ¶ 12 The State responds that the plain intent of our statutory scheme is to mitigate the crime of murder where a defendant's conduct was clearly wrong but where the circumstances were so provocative that even a reasonable person might have reacted similarly. But, the State asserts, even assuming the truthfulness of defendant's version of the incident, those facts would not constitute a reasonable explanation or excuse for the stabbing of Christopher. The State asserts that no reasonable person under the then existing circumstances, teased by a good friend playing with a knife during a sleepover, would have become so enraged or experience such an extreme emotional disturbance as to cause him to kill that person by cutting his throat and stabbing him thirty-nine times. ¶ 13 We conclude that defendant was entitled to an instruction under subsection (3)(a)(i) because a jury could conclude that Brookes caused the death of Christopher under the influence of extreme emotional distress for which there is a reasonable explanation or excuse. In holding that the defendant was entitled to an instruction under subsection (3)(a)(i), we do not suggest that Brookes' version of the events that took place is the only reasonable interpretation of the evidence. Most disturbing, of course, is the fact that the medical examiner testified that Christopher had been stabbed thirty-nine times. However, in State v. Standiford, 769 P.2d 254, 264, 266 (Utah 1988), we approved of the giving of instructions for manslaughter and self-defense based on the defendant's theory of the case where he had stabbed the victim 107 times. See also State v. Cloud, 722 P.2d 750, 753-55 (Utah 1986), in which we held that the defendant would be entitled to an instruction on extreme emotional distress manslaughter where the victim had been stabbed twenty-seven times and died of multiple critical wounds.