Court Opinion

ID: 9471026
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:23:49.840175+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:14.749777
License: Public Domain

HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that the jury instructions in this case deprived Morris of a fair trial. Morris was convicted of first degree murder and the trial judge’s instructions on this charge were adequate. It is true that in instructing the jury with respect to the lesser offenses of second degree murder and manslaughter, the trial judge erroneously referred to a presumption of malice and placed upon the defendant the burden of proving mitigating circumstances. However, in my view, these errors were cured by the jury’s verdict of first degree murder. Therefore, I must dissent.
In instructing the jury in this case on the elements of . first degree murder, the trial court correctly placed the burden of proof on the state to show beyond a reasonable doubt that Morris killed his wife “willfully, deliberately and with premeditation and of course with malice aforethought.” Specifically, the trial court properly defined reasonable doubt, explained that the state had to establish by proof every fact material to the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, and properly defined the terms willful, deliberate, premeditation, and malice aforethought.1
Morris’ defense at trial was that he had killed his wife accidentally. Common sense dictates that accident and malice are mutually exclusive. In fact, an accident is the very antithesis of a deliberate act resulting in foreseen and intended consequences. No specific instruction concerning accident was given, nor was one requested. By returning a verdict of first degree murder, the jury, in my opinion, clearly found that the state had sustained its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Morris killed the deceased in a willful, deliberate, and premeditated manner. In other words, the jury rejected Morris’ theory of accident and was satisfied that the state had necessarily disproved this defense beyond a reasonable doubt.2
I can only conclude that the jurors in Morris’ case did not rely on the erroneous instructions with respect to second degree murder and manslaughter. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the jury’s verdict and I am satisfied that the instructions *112were not so confusing and that the errors did not so infect Morris’ trial as to render his conviction for first degree murder fundamentally unfair. Accordingly, I would affirm the district court’s judgment, denying Morris’ petition for habeas corpus relief.

. As part of his instructions, the trial judge correctly defined the following elements indicating an intent to kill:
“Willful” is a specific purpose, design or intent to kill. “Deliberate” means the full conscious knowledge of the purpose to kill; and premeditation means that the design or intention to kill must have come before the killing by an appreciable length of time— time sufficient for some reflection and consideration upon the matter, choice to kill or not to kill and for formation of a definite purpose to kill — that is, time enough to be deliberate.

. The majority opinion concludes that the Court’s decision in Guthrie v. Warden, Maryland Penitentiary, 683 F.2d 820 (4th Cir.1982), is dispositive of Morris’ appeal. However, the majority distinguishes a portion of the Guthrie decision which I find entirely applicable to Morris’ claim. In Guthrie, the trial judge’s instructions on second degree murder and manslaughter had erroneously allocated to the defendant the burden of proof on issues of intoxication and heat of passion. Nevertheless, this court held that the jury had been adequately charged as to first degree murder and that the erroneous intoxication and heat of passion instructions were cured by the jury’s verdict of first degree murder. Unlike the majority, I find this portion of the Guthrie holding controlling in the instant case.