Court Opinion

ID: 9698968
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:05:35.743966+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:45.020136
License: Public Domain

*283O’HERN, J.,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I agree with the views stated in Part II of the majority opinion that the jury’s verdict of felony murder does not render harmless an erroneous refusal to charge the jury on available manslaughter verdicts. I also agree generally with the principles of law expressed in Part III of the opinion. I disagree that on the facts of this case the manslaughter issue should not have been submitted to the jury.
Although the versions of the incident are in sharp dispute, together they contain the facts that a jury will weigh in drawing the ultimate inferences of whether defendant acted with a state of culpability other than the purpose or knowledge to kill the victim.
When we come to the question of what inferences the jury can draw from the facts presented to it, the distance a court will go is shown fairly well in State v. Bonano, 59 N.J. 515, 523-24 (1971). There, as this Court stated in State v. Powell, 84 N.J. 305 (1980),
this Court, evaluating evidence introduced to support a claim of self-defense, found that a manslaughter charge based on provocation/passion was justified despite the total absence of any suggestion that defendant became angry. All that was before the jury in [Bonano] was that defendant might have thought that the victim was trying to harm him, and that some gesture on the part of the victim had been made. Based on that provocation, defendant shot and killed the victim; * * *. [State v. Powell, supra, 84 N. J. at 319.]
Powell follows Bonano in supporting the giving of the instruction “[i]n spite of a record barren of evidence of any loss of self-control on the part of the defendant * * 84 N.J. at 312, and states that “there are no legal rules as to what inferences” a jury can properly draw from the proofs in a given case, id. at 314. Thus, the defendant’s failure here to assert that he was overcome by a passionate rage is not determinative *284of the manslaughter issue because the jury is free to draw the inferences it deems plausible and credible.1
If the jury believed certain parts of the defendant’s version of events, it could have concluded that the victim, Torres, used racial epithets and coupled them with provocative and persistent acts; Arriagas said he ignored the first insults from Torres and challenged him to a fight only when Torres came at him. It also could have believed that Torres threw the first punch (or kick) and that this angered Arriagas. As noted, the defendant testified that he was “upset.” The fact that Arriagas never said that he was so provoked that he lost control and killed Torres does not mean that the jury could not have reached that conclusion on its own once it heard evidence of the victim’s alleged assaultive conduct. To condition the defendant’s right to a manslaughter instruction based on what he said at the trial is contrary to Powell. 84 N.J. at 317 (a defendant is entitled to the instruction regardless of whether it is consistent with his testimony or theory of defense).
It should be noted that even inadequate provocation coupled with an objectively unreasonable reaction may be relevant to a case, like this one, because the jury may find that it creates a reasonable doubt about the existence of the “malice” (under our new Code, the mental state of knowledge or purpose) required for murder, id. at 314-15, thus warranting a possible verdict on a lesser-included offense of murder.
Murder eases will almost always turn on the mental state of the accused. Deciding that question is the jury’s function. 2 Wharton’s Criminal Law § 164, at 259 (C. Torcia 14th ed. 1979) (where there is dispute, jury should decide questions of adequate provocation); see also American Law Institute, Model Penal Code and Commentaries § 210.3, at 57-61 (perm. ed. 1980) (recognizing limited value of categorical rules on mitiga*285tion developed by common law). Even “words alone,” when they are racial slurs, may be particularly odious to our societal values and may, in some people, provoke violent reactions. See, e.g., State v. Sturdivant, 607 S. W. 2d 230, 231 (Tenn.1980) (racial slurs could be sufficient provocation to support manslaughter conviction even though they were not sufficiently threatening to support self-defense exoneration).
All that is required is that “the evidence leaves room for dispute” that the killing might have occurred other than as alleged. State v. Sinclair, 49 N.J. 525, 542 (1967).
Disconcerting as it may be, on the facts of this case, I believe the evidence leaves enough room for dispute that “it would not be idle,” id. at 540 (emphasis in original), to have had the jury consider manslaughter. There was, clearly, some evidence of provocation. What effect that had on the mental state of the defendant we will never know, for by virtue of its verdict of felony murder, the jury never considered the defendant’s mental state vis-a-vis homicide. There was, in addition, the added fact that the defendant and four witnesses testified that Arriagas took no part in the killing. Taken together, the combination of factors makes it conceivable that the jury, if allowed to consider the available homicide verdicts, might have concluded either that Arriagas did not kill Torres, killed him but did not intend to kill him, or intentionally killed him in a rage in the midst of a fight. In hindsight, none is a defense the jury would have been likely to accept. But that is not the test. The test is whether there was room for dispute. On the facts of this case, I would have left that issue to the jury.
For affirmance — Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, GARIBALDI and STEIN — 5.
For remand for new trial — CHIEF JUSTICE WILENTZ and Justice O’HERN — 2.

 In any event, the trial transcripts indicate that Arriagas clearly testified that after the victim cursed and kicked him, “I really got upset and hit him.”