Court Opinion

ID: 9709373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:46:18.509055+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:47.819950
License: Public Domain

Quirico, J. (with whom Hennessey, C.J.,
joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part). While I concur with the granting of a new trial to the defendant in the exercise of our powers under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, I would do so for a reason different from that relied on by the court in the part of its opinion entitled “1. Deliberate premeditation.” However, I am unable to agree with the court’s reasoning and holding in the part of its opinion entitled “2. Extreme atrocity or cruelty,” and I therefore respectfully dissent therefrom.
1. Basic reason for granting a new trial. The court properly rejects the defendant’s claim that the judge should have reduced the charge as submitted to the jury, to that of murder in the second degree because of the insufficiency of evidence of deliberate premeditation. I believe that there was sufficient evidence of deliberate premeditation, and that there was also sufficient evidence that the homicide was committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty, with the result that the case was properly submitted to the jury on the charge of murder in the first degree.
The defendant expressly argues for our adoption of a “diminished capacity” rule, but limited in application to the determination whether he had the capacity to deliberately premeditate the homicide. The court in effect adopts that approach and, in the exercise of its powers under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, grants him a new trial on the ground that the judge failed to instruct the jury that if they found that the defendant was suffering from a mental disease by reason of which he was incapable of deliberately premeditating the homicide, he could not be found guilty of murder in the first degree. The court attempts to distinguish the principle on which it bases that decision from the doctrine of “diminished capacity,” which has been frequently, and again quite recently, rejected by this court. Commonwealth v. McGuirk, *688376 Mass. 338, 345-346 (1978). Commonwealth v. Johnson, 374 Mass. 453, 461-465 (1978). Commonwealth v. Sires, 370 Mass. 541, 546-547 (1976), and cases cited.
The court’s decision in this respect probably represents no great change in our law on this subject because the Commonwealth, when seeking a conviction for murder in the first degree “committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought” (G. L. c. 265, § 1), has always had the burden of proving the element of deliberate premeditation, and that impliedly includes the burden of proving that the defendant had the capacity to deliberately premeditate the homicide.
I am not concerned here with the technical question whether the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s implied finding that the defendant possessed the mental capacity prescribed by our decision in Commonwealth v. McHoul, 352 Mass. 544 (1967), as necessary to render him criminally responsible for the homicide. Rather, I am concerned with the broader question whether we can reasonably and fairly conclude, upon consideration of the entire evidence of insanity (which is not limited to the testimony of the psychiatrists), that there is no substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice in these circumstances. In such a case it is not enough, nor is it a proper discharge of our responsibility under § 33E, to base our decision solely on the fact that there was some evidence, in this case the testimony of one psychiatrist, to support the jury’s conclusion that the defendant was legally competent and criminally responsible for his act. If that were the sole test there would be no need or occasion for the exercise of the extraordinary powers vested in this court by § 33E. While those powers are to be exercised sparingly, they may, and perhaps must, be exercised when all other conventional tests and procedures have been exhausted but we are still left with a miscarriage which may result unless we exercise those powers to prevent it.
The judicial process cannot be expected to be understood or respected for convicting as a criminal, and then committing to prison for life, a person as to whom there may have been a miscarriage of justice in the determination of his *689mental competence and criminal responsibility for his acts. It is on this basis that I would exercise our powers under § 33E to reverse the judgment in this case and grant the defendant a new trial.
2. Murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty. Since 1858, our statutes have identified three types of homicide which constitute murder in the first degree. St. 1858, c. 154, § 1. G. L. c. 265, § 1. They are “[mjurder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life.” G. L. c. 265, § 1.
Whether the evidence of the manner and circumstances in which a homicide was committed is sufficient to submit the case to the jury on the issue whether it was committed “with extreme atrocity or cruelty” has been the subject of many decisions of this court. Commonwealth v. Podlaski, 377 Mass. 339, 348-349 (1979). Commonwealth v. Clifford, 374 Mass. 293, 307-308 (1978). Commonwealth v. Reddick, 372 Mass. 460, 462 (1977). Commonwealth v. Lacy, 371 Mass. 363, 367-368 (1976). Commonwealth v. Satterfield, 362 Mass. 78, 80-82 (1972). Commonwealth v. Connolly, 356 Mass. 617, 628-629, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 843 (1970). Commonwealth v. McGarty, 323 Mass. 435, 440 (1948). Commonwealth v. Bartolini, 299 Mass. 503, 516, cert. denied, 304 U.S. 565 (1938). Commonwealth v. Knowlton, 265 Mass. 382, 388-389 (1928). Commonwealth v. Devlin, 126 Mass. 253, 254-255 (1879). Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, 16 Gray 1, 9-11 (1860). The evidence in this case was sufficient to warrant the submission of the case to the jury on the question whether the murder was committed “with extreme atrocity or cruelty” as those words have heretofore been construed and applied in the cases cited above.
At all times since 1858, when the Legislature identified the three types of murder in the first degree in substantially the language now appearing in G. L. c. 265, § 1, this court has held that proof of murder committed “with extreme atrocity or cruelty” did not require proof that it was also *690committed with “deliberately premeditated malice aforethought.” This was first decided in Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, supra at 9-10, where this court said: “The counsel for the prisoner contended that to constitute a murder in the first degree, by reason of its being committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty, the atrocity and cruelty must be premeditated. In the opinion of the court, this position cannot be maintained. The three different cases stated as authorizing a conviction of murder in the first degree are so far independent, that the existence of either would authorize the jury to return a verdict of murder in the first degree. The statute has made extreme atrocity or cruelty in the commission of the murder sufficient to constitute the crime of murder in the first degree; and if this be shown, it is not incumbent on the government affirmatively to show that such atrocity and cruelty were premeditated.” Later, in Commonwealth v. Gilbert, 165 Mass. 45, 59 (1895), we said: “ [T]he [statutory] requirement of deliberate premeditation clearly is not attached to murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty . . . .” Again more recently, in Commonwealth v. Appleby, 358 Mass. 407, 415 (1970), we said: “ It is not necessary, however, to show that such atrocity or cruelty [with which a murder is committed] was premeditated . . . .”
The opinion of the court in the present case introduces a new element to the crime of murder committed “with extreme atrocity or cruelty.” The court first holds that the evidence would permit the jury to find that the defendant is criminally responsible within the rule adopted in the McHoul case, supra, but would also permit the jury to find that the defendant has a reduced mental capacity. It then argues for a consideration of the entire evidence, including the “defendant’s peculiar mental state as an additional factor to be weighed in determining whether the murder was committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty.” Supra at 685-686.
Finally, the court states that “ [hjereafter, in addition to the traditional instructions on extreme atrocity or cruelty the judge may also instruct the jurors that if they find from *691the evidence that the defendant had substantially reduced mental capacity at the time the crime was committed, they may consider what effect, if any, the defendant’s impaired capacity had on his ability to appreciate the consequences of his choices. Thus, the defendant’s mental impairment is to be weighed in evaluating the evidence of the manner and means of inflicting death, the instrumentalities employed, any disproportion between the means actually needed to inflict death and those employed, the consciousness and degree of suffering of the victim, and the extent of the victim’s physical injuries, factors customarily associated with extreme atrocity or cruelty.” Supra at 686 n.16.
If the jury on retrial is instructed in accordance with the court’s mandate as quoted above, the result will be the introduction of the doctrine of diminished capacity as a partial defense to the crime of murder in the first degree when committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty. This would mean that in a situation which would otherwise constitute murder in the first degree by reason of extreme atrocity or cruelty, the jury could find the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree solely by reason of his reduced mental capacity, notwithstanding the fact that by the proper application of the McHoul test the defendant meets all the requirements to make him criminally responsible for his conduct. With this I cannot and do not agree.
This is a judicial attempt to rewrite a legislative definition of what constitutes one of the three types of murder in the first degree. It will erode a legislative mandate which has passed judicial scrutiny in a number of decisions by this court since 1858. It opens the door for any defendant to escape the legislative mandate of a life sentence without benefit of parole for the crime of murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty by his resort to the simple device of raising a reasonable doubt whether he acted under the influence of drugs or intoxicating liquor in committing an alleged brutal or savage murder. Cf., e.g., Commonwealth v. Podlaski, 377 Mass. 339, 340-342, 348-349 (1979).
*692The determination of what the penalty, or the range of the penalty, should be for any given crime is primarily a matter of public policy for determination by the Legislature, within constitutional limits. There is no constitutional question raised in this case. There is no ambiguity in the pertinent language of G. L. c. 265, § 1, which governs this situation. The best authority which can be advanced for the latter statement is a review of relevant language from some decisions of this court over the last century.
Our decision in Commonwealth v. Gilbert, 165 Mass. 45 (1895), is frequently cited for the principle that a person may not be found guilty of murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought if, at the time of the murder, he was incapable, by reason of being intoxicated, of deliberately premeditating the homicide. However, the decision is equally important for what this court said, id. at 58-59, on the subject which we are now considering: “The question presented ... is this: Assuming a killing with malice aforethought, which would be murder in the second degree, was it incumbent on the prosecution, in order to obtain a conviction of murder in the first degree on the ground of extreme atrocity or cruelty, to show that the prisoner had knowledge of the character of the act? This must mean, we think, knowledge that the act of killing was attended with extreme atrocity or cruelty.
" . . . .
“We do not think this special knowledge of the character of the act is an element which enters into the statutory description of a murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty. The intelligence and mental capacity requisite for the commission of murder were found to exist. Knowledge that the crime was extremely atrocious or cruel is not required. If the prisoner was a responsible agent, the statute providing that murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty is murder in the first degree calls for no greater degree of knowledge than is required for a conviction of murder in the second degree. This is a separate and distinct ground from that of deliberately premeditated malice afore*693thought; the requirement of deliberate premeditation clearly is not attached to murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty; nor is any degree of purpose, intention, or knowledge, beyond what is involved in the commission of murder with malice aforethought. This of itself excludes an accidental homicide. A murder committed with malice aforethought may be found to have been committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty, even though the murderer did not know that his act was extremely atrocious or cruel.”
In Commonwealth v. Appleby, 358 Mass. 407, 415 (1970), this court said: “It is not necessary ... to show that such atrocity or cruelty [with which the murder was committed] was premeditated or that the defendant knew his conduct constituted extreme atrocity or cruelty.”
In the very recent case of Commonwealth v. Monsen, 377 Mass. 245, 254 (1979), we said: “To import a mens rea requirement into the words ‘extreme atrocity or cruelty’ would be to blur the distinction between that form of murder in the first degree [murder committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty] and the premeditated variety. Rather, we think that the Legislature intended to exact [upon an accomplice] the greater punishment of the principal solely on the basis of the shocking, unnecessary, and often painful manner in which the death has been caused. Although the inference that the actor possesses a particularly brutal state of mind might be warranted by the objective circumstances of the killing, no such inference is necessary in order to convict” (footnote omitted).
In view of the long and unwavering commitment by this court to the construction of G. L. c. 265, § 1, in the manner indicated by the decisions in our cases cited above, I see no sound reason for attempting now, by judicial decision, to change the meaning of the legislative words of “[mjurder committed . . . with extreme atrocity or cruelty.” Whether it is desirable to introduce any version of diminished capacity as a mitigating factor to this crime as now defined by the statute is a question of legislative policy which I believe we should leave to the Legislature.