Court Opinion

ID: 9944360
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-26 16:50:47.418044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:58:00.821139
License: Public Domain

In my view this is a case of murder where the element of malice aforethought has not been proved.
While I agree with the finding of the trial court on the issue of legal sanity, I think the evidence unequivocally discloses that defendant by reason of severe mental illness lacked the capacity for malice required for murder. (Pen. Code, § 187) On four different occasions before the killing he had been a patient in mental hospitals under treatment for schizophrenia, and immediately after the killing he underwent a year's treatment in Atascadero State Hospital for insane delusions. Although defendant has refused to argue the issue of diminished capacity, we have an independent responsibility in the matter, and I would reduce the judgment of conviction from second degree murder to manslaughter, i.e. a voluntary killing without malice by reason of defendant's diminished capacity to entertain malice. (Pen. Code, § 192; People v. Conley, 64 Cal.2d 310, 323 [49 Cal.Rptr. 815, 411 P.2d 911].)
Appellant's petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied May 15, 1968. Peters, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. *Page 244