Court Opinion

ID: 9679311
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:48:38.779224+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:12.514778
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I agree with Justice Morgan that the trial court did not err in giving jury instruction 38. I would adopt Justice Morgan’s position that SDCL 22-16-6 applies to first-degree murder charges and that SDCL 22-5-5 applies to all other offenses involving specific intent. I believe that the trial court’s instructions here, taken together, fully and adequately stated the applicable law.
Even applying the law as interpreted in the majority opinion, I am equally of the opinion that the failure of the trial court to give the requested instruction on the effect of intoxication is, at the very most, harmless error.
There is no question but that prior to the incident defendant had consumed alcohol. Arguably, the testimony of his girlfriend, Ms. Palmer, standing alone would justify the giving of the instruction. However, her testimony is substantially eroded by all of the other evidence, especially by defendant’s own actions, behavior, manner and comportment.
We have here a brutal, vicious attack, committed in a silent and swift manner, not upon unarmed and inexperienced individuals, but rather upon two armed and experienced policemen.
Prior to the attack defendant came home and watched television. He woke Ms. Palmer and asked her for her car keys. Upon her refusal, they argued and he struck her. When she went upstairs to the bedroom he followed her, carefully and consciously took the child from her, and struck her again. He then followed her downstairs, whereupon she left to telephone the police from a neighbor’s house.
The police arrived in a short time. In the interim defendant purposefully armed himself. As the police proceeded up the stairs, he jumped down to the turn or landing of the stairs and charged them rapidly. He stabbed Officer Callies just below the sternum and Officer Larson in the chest and arm, before either knew what was happening. The defendant accomplished the attack so quickly that Officer Larson did not see the thrusted knife that twice penetrated his body. Further, the attack carried with it such force that it slammed Officer Larson into the stairway wall, damaging the plaster.
When one of the officers drew his weapon, defendant had the presence of mind to retreat up the stairs.
The defendant, being aware of the arrival of backup officers and being conscious of his plight, decided to surrender. He even had the presence of mind to extend his hands into the view of the officers so as to indicate that he was not armed. He completely followed the specific instructions of the officers by coming down the stairs slowly, and by turning and facing and leaning against the wall. He even had sufficient presence of mind to tell the officers about a lighted cigarette he had *130dropped on the floor. He then followed the instructions of the officers with no difficulty. He walked without assistance and made various conscious, verbal “wisecracks” to the officers.
When viewing all of the evidence one must conclude that the defendant did not in any manner suffer from any abnormal mental or physical condition which impaired or diminished his ability to form the requisite specific intent. Admittedly, he had been drinking, but “so what?” At the time of the attack the defendant possessed the physical and mental attributes of a man acting in a conscious, lucid, quick thinking and coordinated manner which enabled him to carry out this most heinous crime. No jury could possibly have found that he had a diminished capacity to formulate specific intent, even if it had been given the opportunity to consider that issue.
The evidence is clear and undisputed that the defendant knowingly, consciously and intentionally attacked two law enforcement officers, killing one, who were in the performance of their thankless and dangerous duties. His only real defense is that his intent to accomplish the attack was diminished because of his prior voluntary consumption of alcohol. Under the evidence, that defense just doesn’t fly.