Court Opinion

ID: 9633454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:48:10.808278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:50.472972
License: Public Domain

RANSOM, Justice (specially concurring). I specially concur to voice two reasons why I do not believe that the majority of this panel should speak for the Court on the soundness of the common-law principle, articulated in Territory v. Lynch, 18 N.M. 15, 133 P. 405 (1913), that an illegal or unlawful arrest, under certain circumstances, may represent adequate provocation of violence to warrant the giving of a manslaughter instruction when the defendant has been charged with murder. First, the manslaughter instruction based upon provocation was given in this case, and the jury was not instructed that the conduct of the officers was lawful and could not constitute provocation. It seems that Chamberlain was in no way prejudiced in his ability to argue that he was provoked by the refusal of the officers to leave his home when he revoked his permission to be there. It would have been helpful to Chamberlain’s case for the court to have instructed the jury that the presence of the officers was unlawful, if that were the case, but for the court to have given such an instruction it would have had to decide collateral legal issues such as probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed and the existence of exigent circumstances to justify the warrantless search. I would approach the question before us as being whether it is error for the court to refuse to decide and/or instruct on such a collateral issue, or whether the court correctly left the entire matter of provocation for full argument to the jury on the facts as presented. Consequently, I find it unnecessary to decide the validity of Lynch. Second, even were I to reach the issue, I would find the Lynch rule inapposite here. The Lynch line of cases follows an established common-law rule that an illegal arrest, that is an arrest without probable cause, may constitute sufficient provocation to justify giving a manslaughter instruction. There is scant authority to suggest that an illegal search of one's home (a trespass), represents adequate provocation to warrant the instruction. See 40 C.J.S. Homicide § 85(b) (1991) (illegal arrest); id. § 86 (offense against property). It would seem unnecessary to address the continuing validity of the former common-law rule involving illegal arrest in the context of this case. Also, New Mexico never has followed a rule that the fact of an illegal arrest automatically reduces murder to manslaughter; like most other jurisdictions the defendant must still prove he in fact was filled with passion aroused by the illegal arrest sufficient to meet the usual provocation tests. See Lynch, 18 N.M. at 33, 133 P. at 409 (“[I]f in fact the outrage of an attempted illegal arrest has not excited the passions, a killing in cold blood will be murder.”).1  Indeed, I believe that unlawful conduct of an arresting law enforcement officer, under certain circumstances, may constitute adequate provocation to warrant a conviction for voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. I would not agree that the test of whether the manslaughter instruction should be given is merely whether the officer was “acting within the scope of his official duties” as the majority of this panel indicates. This would seem to be the net effect of overruling Lynch, and adopting in this murder/manslaughter case, the test announced in State v. Doe, 92 N.M. 100, 583 P.2d 464 (1978), to determine if an officer is engaged in the lawful discharge of his duties for purposes of NMSA 1953, Section 40A-22-23 (battery upon a police officer). 1 find significant the distinction between the principles of justification or excuse rejected in Doe and the principle at work in Lynch which is related to mens rea or “the character of the homicide.” See Lynch, 18 N.M. at 33, 133 P. at 409. In Doe the Court determined that the fact of illegality of an arrest is no defense to a charge of battery against a police officer. In effect, this ruling abolished the common-law right to resist with reasonable force an illegal arrest. See generally Annotation, Modern Status of Rules as to Right to Forcefully Resist Illegal Arrest 44 A.L.R.3d 1078 (1972). However, I am of the opinion that the rationale which denies resistance on the part of a citizen to an illegal or unlawful arrest should not determine the character of a homicide (identified by mens rea) that may grow out of such an arrest. I am not inclined to overrule Lynch to the extent it is inconsistent with the rule announced in Doe. Additionally, some forms of unlawful conduct on the part of police officers, such as the excessive use of force, in performance of their official duties, as in making an arrest, any arrest, may certainly give rise to adequate provocation. Use of the simple test in Doe (acting within scope of official duties) would not seem to take this into account and easily might be misunderstood on this point.  . In connection with the propriety and character of jury instructions to be given when provocation is put in issue by unlawful conduct on the part of arresting officers, Professor LaFave observes the circumstances may require more than the mere fact of illegality: If an illegal arrest may be a reasonable provocation in some circumstances, it would seem that these circumstances should include the fact that the defendant knew or at least believed that his arrest was illegal; and perhaps that the defendant knew or believed he was innocent of the crime for which he was arrested, since an innocent man would more reasonably be provoked by an illegal arrest than a guilty one. 2 W. LaFave & A. Scott, Substantive Criminal Law § 7.10(b)(4) (1986).