Opinion ID: 1122777
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The text of the 1978 initiative.

Text: (3a) The 1978 initiative, enacted by the voters at the November election of that year, completely rewrote the special circumstance provision of the 1977 law. In place of the six narrowly defined circumstances of the earlier legislation, it enacted 19 special circumstances. The felony-murder provision (now ¶ 17 of § 190.2, subd. (a)) omitted any requirement that the murder be wilful, deliberate, and premeditated. Instead, it provided a punishment of death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole if [t]he murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in or was an accomplice in the commission of, attempted commission of, or the immediate flight after committing or attempting to commit any listed felony. To the five felonies specified in the 1977 law  robbery, kidnaping, rape, child molesting, and burglary  it then added four additional crimes  forceable sodomy, forceable oral copulation, arson, and trainwrecking. The provisions in the 1977 law requiring physical presence and intention to cause death also disappear from the 1978 version. In their place appears a new section (190.2, subd. (b)), of uncertain effect, but apparently designed to equate the liability of actual killers and their accomplices. This section, which by its terms applies to all special circumstances except that of previous murder conviction (§ 190.2, subd. (a), ¶ (2)), states that [e]very person whether or not the actual killer found guilty of intentionally aiding, abetting, counseling, commanding, inducing, soliciting, requesting, or assisting any actor in the commission of murder in the first degree shall suffer death or confinement in state prison for a term of life without the possibility of parole.... In paragraph 17 of the new enactment, the felony murder special circumstance, the absence of any express requirement of intentionality suggests that the circumstance applies to a defendant whether or not he intended to kill. That inference gains force from the fact that 10 of the 18 remaining special circumstances expressly require an intentional killing, implying that the omission of that requirement in paragraph 17 was deliberate. [7] Upon closer look, however, it becomes clear that a construction of paragraph 17 without an intent requirement would have anomalous results. Five of the felonies listed in that paragraph  arson, rape, robbery, burglary and child molesting  also appear in section 189, the statutory felony-murder provision. [8] As to these offenses, an unintentional killing in perpetration of the felony, raised to first degree murder by operation of section 189, would without further proof constitute a special circumstance under paragraph 17. The remaining four felonies  kidnaping, sodomy, oral copulation, and trainwrecking  are not enumerated in section 189. Since it is clear that in virtually every case an intent to kill would be required to render a death occurring in the course of one of these four felonies a first degree murder  a prerequisite to any special circumstance finding (§ 190.2, subd. (a))  a defendant who kills unintentionally during the commission of those offenses is not subject to the death penalty or imprisonment without possibility of parole. [9] There is, however, no reason to believe that the drafters or voters intended to distinguish between deaths which occurred during the course of section 189 felonies and those in nonsection 189 felonies; the two classes of felonies are interspersed randomly in paragraph 17. And the result of such a distinction would be difficult to defend. A defendant who killed unintentionally during a robbery or rape could be convicted of first degree murder with special circumstances and executed, while one who killed unintentionally during a kidnaping for robbery or a forcible sodomy could not be convicted of first degree murder and thus could not be executed. The difficulties created by reading paragraph 17 without an intentionality requirement increase when we consider subdivision (b) of section 190.2. Although that subdivision apparently was added to govern liability of accomplices, it states the liability of both accomplices and principals. Every person whether or not the actual killer shall suffer death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole if he is found guilty of intentionally aiding, abetting ... or assisting any actor in the commission of murder in the first degree within the scope of 18 special circumstance paragraphs, including paragraph 17. With regard to most of the listed special circumstances, the function of subdivision (b) is clear: it renders the accomplice equally liable as the principal if the accomplice intentionally aided in the murder. With respect to paragraph 17, however, its function is more obscure. In the first place, paragraph 17, alone of the listed paragraphs, already contains language equating the liability of principal and accomplice. In addition, the requirement that the accomplice intentionally aid in the commission of a murder is inherently ambiguous when applied to a felony murder, for it could mean either that the accomplice must intentionally aid in a killing, or that he need only intentionally aid the commission of the underlying felony. And because paragraph 17 includes felonies not listed in section 189, the ambiguities mount. Must the accomplice to a nonsection 189 felony share the principal's intent to kill, or need he only intend to aid the underlying felony? [10] In resolving these ambiguities, we arrive at the following conclusion: With regard to section 190.2 generally, it is reasonably clear that subdivision (b) imposes an intent to kill requirement before an accomplice can be found guilty of murder with special circumstances under most of the special circumstance paragraphs. The subdivision further equates the liability of the accomplice to that of the actual killer, thus implying an intentionality requirement for the actual killer  a requirement stated expressly in some, but not all, of the paragraphs in question. With regard to felony murder, the impact of subdivision (b) is less clear. It almost certainly imposes an intent to kill requirement for an accomplice to any nonsection 189 murder, since the actual killer in such a case could not be found guilty of murder with special circumstances absent such an intent. Since subdivision (b) draws no distinction between section 189 murders and those not encompassed in that section, and seeks to avoid any distinction between accomplices and actual killers, a uniform and sensible interpretation of the subdivision would read it as imposing an intent to kill requirement for the accomplice to any felony murder, and by implication such a requirement for the actual killer himself. We cannot demand perfection in the drafting of statutes; some inconsistency and inequity is probably inevitable. But neither should we ignore such matters when called to our attention. If, as in this case, we can discover a reasonable interpretation of the statute which avoids logical anomalies and minimizes inequitable results, surely we would prefer that interpretation to one that does not.