Court Opinion

ID: 9685244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:27:02.811776+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:03.623344
License: Public Domain

EDMONDS, J.
As I read the record in this case, it not only shows evidence which, as conceded by my associates, substantially supports the verdict of the jury finding Thomas guilty of murder of the first degree but also a charge to the jury which includes a complete and accurate statement of the law relating to the crimes of murder and manslaughter. I therefore cannot concur in the decision granting the appellant a new trial. And assuming that the abstruse and meticulous analysis of the instructions made by Justice Schauer justifies the conclusion that there was error in the charge to the jury, in my opinion, considering all of the facts of the case, the verdict should be upheld in accordance with the constitutional mandate requiring that a judgment shall not be reversed because of the jury’s misdirection, “unless, after an examination of the entire cause, including the evidence, the *906court shall he of .the opinion that the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice.” (Cal. Const., art. VI, §4½.)
The evidence relating to the homicide, including the statements of Thomas concerning the circumstances surrounding its commission, provides ample basis for characterizing the crime as a planned and deliberate murder which the jury correctly determined to be of the first degree. For some time, Thomas had suspected that Bernice was engaged in clandestine relations with other men. Whether this mistrust was warranted or wholly unfounded, both at the time of his arrest, immediately following the shooting, and shortly thereafter he voluntarily stated that because of his suspicions he had “planned to do this before.”
As he related the occurrences, on the night of the shooting, he left Bernice in bed and pretended to go to work but instead “laid in wait to catch her.” When he secretly returned to his home and found Bernice dressing to go out, he said “I just got mad and grabbed my pistol.” Bernice then “broke and run on out and I ran after her and shot her.” It appears that, in her efforts to escape Thomas, Bernice reached a point about 60 feet from the porch of their home and when he caught up to her there, she doubled back and ran in the opposite direction for a somewhat greater distance before he felled her with the fatal shots. Thomas admitted that he fired four times and his testimony was corroborated by the autopsy surgeon who found eight puncture wounds in the body of Bernice. These were the points of entrance and exit of the four bullets.
Later, on the witness stand, in an apparent attempt to minimize the legal consequences of his act, Thomas altered his story in several material particulars. He then said that he missed the bus for work on the night of the shooting and unexpectedly returned home to find Bernice preparing to go out with another man, that a dispute followed, and that in the resulting tussle the gun was accidentally discharged with fatal effect.
Unquestionably the jury was fully justified in rejecting the appellant’s courtroom version of the shooting in the face of his earlier contradictory and impeaching statements. Moreover, it is inconceivable that the gun could have “accidentally” discharged four times into the body of Bernice. And in addition to the self-impeaching statements of Thomas, the *907testimony of other witnesses absolutely discredits the story related by him upon the witness stand.
According to Mrs. Banks, Bernice was dressing to visit her sister when Thomas entered the room. He was very angry and “grabbed” his loaded pistol from a dresser drawer. Bernice called out “Mama, come quick, and don’t let G. T. kill me.” As he held Bernice in one arm, Thomas told her mother to get back or he would give her “the same.” He then shoved Bernice out of the door and down a flight of steps. She broke loose and ran down the street, Thomas pursuing her. He fired two shots at her and later three more. A neighbor, who was passing the house at the time of the “confusion,” heard Bernice cry out, “Please don’t kill me, I haven’t done anything.” Later, this witness said, Bernice ran down the street with Thomas in pursuit and as they entered a darkened area he heard her cry out several times, “Please don’t kill me, C. T., I haven’t done anything.” He then heard several shots and a few seconds later he heard additional shots.
This evidence overwhelmingly supports the jury’s verdict that the murder was premeditated and therefore of the first degree. The appraisal of the evidence and the resolving of conflicts therein including the weighing of the inconsistent and impeaching versions of the circumstances surrounding the homicide given by Thomas were matters exclusively for the jury’s determination. In explaining and minimizing the scope and effect of his statements indicative of premeditation, my associates have effectively usurped the function of the jury.
Concerning the instructions, the majority admit that they were correct in concept and adequate in expression of the distinction between murder and manslaughter. But, it is said, they did not adequately and accurately inform the jury in regard to the distinction between murder of the first degree and murder of the second degree. In reaching this conclusion, Mr. Justice Schauer declares that the brief of the attorney general misconceives the distinction between the degrees of murder and that it erroneously stresses the necessity for the presence, in a homicide of the type here involved, of only a specific intent to kill without mentioning the equally essential element of premeditation. It is somewhat unusual, to say the least, for a judicial conclusion to be based upon the assertedly incorrect statements of counsel in regard to the law. *908Considering the instructions as the basis of the charge that the jury was misdirected, I do not find any error in them; on the contrary they clearly define the crimes of murder of the first degree and murder of. the second degree, accurately stating the difference between the two offenses.
“Murder,” the court told the jury in the exact language of the Penal Code, “is the unlawful killing of a human being, with malice aforethought. [Pen. Code, § 187.] Such malice may be express or implied. It is express when there is manifested a deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life of a fellow-creature. It is implied, when no considerable provocation appears, or when the circumstances attending the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart. [Pen. Code, § 188.] All murder which is perpetrated by means of poison, or lying in wait, torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which is committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate arson, rape, robbery, burglary, or mayhem, is murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murders are of the second degree.” (Pen. Code, § 189.)
By these instructions the jury was told that to convict one of the crime of murder of the first degree, the evidence must show premeditation. But the court gave a much fuller explanation of the subject, saying: “In dividing murder into degrees the legislature intended to assign to the first as deserving of greater punishment, all murders of a cruel and aggravated character, and to the second all other kinds of murder which are murder at common law, and to establish a test by which the degree of every case of murder may be readily ascertained. That test may be thus stated: Is the hilling willful (that is to say, intentional), deliberate and premeditated? If it is, the case falls within the first degree and if not, within the second degree. There are certain kinds of murder which carry with them conclusive evidence of premeditation; these the Legislature has enumerated in the code definition already given you and has taken upon itself the responsibility of saying that they shall be deemed and held to be murder of the first degree. These cases are of two classes:
“First: Where the killing is perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait, torture, etc. Here the means used is held to be conclusive evidence of premeditation.
“Second: Where the killing is done in the perpetration, or attempt to perpetrate, some one of the felonies enumer*909ated in the statute, such as arson, rape, robbery, burglary or mayhem, here the occasion is made conclusive evidence of premeditation. Where the case comes within either of these classes the test question: Is the killing willful, deliberate and premeditated ? is answered by the statute itself, and the jury have no option but to find the prisoner guilty in the first degree. Hence so far as these two classes are concerned, all difficulty as to the question of degree is removed by the statute. But there is another and much larger class of cases included in the definition of murder in the first degree, which are of equal cruelty and aggravation with those enumerated, and which, owing to the different and countless forms which murder assumes, it is impossible to describe in the statute. In this class the legislature leaves the jury to determine from all the evidence before them, the degree of the crime, but prescribes for the government of their deliberations the same test which has been used by itself in determining the degree of the other two classes, to-wit: The deliberate and preconceived intent to kill. It is only in the latter class of cases that any difficulty is experienced in drawing the distinction between murder of the first and murder of the second degree, and this difficulty is more apparent than real. The unlawful killing must be accompanied with a deliberate and clear intent to take life in order to constitute murder of the first degree. The intent to kill must be the result of deliberate premeditation. It must be formed upon a pre-existing reflection and not upon a sudden heat of passion sufficient to preclude the idea of deliberation.
“There need be, however, no appreciable space of time between the intention to kill and the act of killing—they may be as instantaneous as successive thoughts of the mind. It is only necessary that the act of killing be preceded by and the result of a concurrence of will, deliberation and premeditation on the part of the slayer, and if such is the case the killing is murder in the first degree, no matter how rapidly these acts of the mind may succeed each other, or how quickly they may be followed by the act of killing.” (Italics added.)
This instruction is taken directly from People v. Sanchez, 24 Cal. 17, 29-30, which is relied upon by my associates in the present case and also characterized by them in People v. Holt, ante, pp. 59, 87 [153 P.2d 21], as the first decision in this state to correctly point out the distinction between murder of the first and of the second degree. Certainly the *910instruction informed the jury no less than four times as to the necessity, under the legislative definition, for reflection or premeditation in order that a homicide may he classified as murder of the first degree.
My associates also place their conclusion that the judgment should be reversed upon the ground that another instruction destroyed the distinction between first and second degree murder, so painstakingly expressed by the trial court in its charge. The criticized instruction in this regard reads: “If the unlawful killing is done without the provocation and sudden passion which reduces the offense to manslaughter, or is done in the commission of an unlawful act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to life, or is committed in the attempt to perpetrate a felony other than those mentioned in the description of murder in the first degree, or the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned heart, this is murder of the second degree, unless the evidence proves the existence in the mind of the slayer of the specific intent to take life. If such specific intent exists at the time of suóh unlawful killing, the offense committed would of course be murder of the first degree.” (Italics added.)
In determining that the italicized portion of the instruction is erroneous, my associates have not considered its context. Of particular importance are the emphasized words “existence” and “exists.” As there used, and when read in light of the immediately preceding and immediately subsequent instructions, which clearly informed the jury as to the necessity for deliberation and premeditation in murder of the first degree, these two words necessarily connote or imply a preconceived or premeditated intent to take life. And, of course, when such preconceived and premeditated intent to take life “exists” in the mind of the slayer, the resulting homicide is murder of the first degree.
The immediately preceding instruction informed the jury, no less than four times, that premeditation was a necessary element of murder of the first degree. The instruction following re-emphasized the point by informing the jury, “If under the evidence herein you are convinced to a moral certainty and beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of the crime of murder, that is to say, that he unlawfully killed said Bernice Thomas, also known as Bernice Owsley, with malice aforethought, but still if you entertain a reasonable doubt whether the said killing was wilful, deliberate and *911premeditated, then in such ease you cannot find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.”
I am satisfied, therefore, that the instruction which my associates classify as prejudicially erroneous is not open to criticism when correctly construed and read in the light of the remainder of the charge to the jury. (People v. Leddy, 95 Cal.App. 659, 670, 671 [273 P. 110].) The same instruction was challenged in the Leddy ease upon the ground advanced by Thomas, but it was held (and this court denied a hearing) that when read in connection with the other instructions to the jury defining murder of the first and of the second degree and of manslaughter, it correctly stated the law. That conclusion was based upon the following reasoning: “It is claimed that this instruction is erroneous because it tells the jury that if there existed in the mind of appellant a specific intent to take life it constituted murder of the first degree and that the instruction ignores the necessary elements of premeditation and deliberation which are necessary elements of murder of the first degree. It will be noted that the instruction states that if the unlawful killing is done without the provocation and sudden passion, which reduces the offense to manslaughter, or is done in the commission of an unlawful act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to life, or is committed in the attempt to perpetrate a felony other than those mentioned in murder of the first degree, or the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned heart, that is murder of the second degree. The court in its other instructions fully defines murder of the first and second degree, and manslaughter, and the elements constituting those offenses. Therefore, read in connection with the other instructions, the instruction complained of constituted a correct statement of the law.”
But, assuming that the criticized instruction is incomplete in its statement of the essentials of murder of the first degree, it is inconceivable that the jury could have been thereby confused or misled in its deliberations when, as shown, it had been told in many other instructions that “the unlawful killing must be accompanied with a deliberate and clear intent to take life in order to constitute murder of the first degree. The intent to kill must be the result of deliberate premeditation. It must be formed upon a pre-existing reflection. ...” Also, my associates give no effect to other instructions by which the jury repeatedly was told that premeditation is an *912essential element of the crime of murder of the first degree. Moreover, an instruction admonishing the jury to “consider these instructions as a whole [as required by settled law] and not any one instruction to the exclusion of another,” is completely ignored. Under these circumstances and particularly considering the evidence consisting of Thomas’ own statements and the physical facts which point convincingly to a murder of the first degree, the record presents a case calling for the application of the curative provisions of. section 4% of article VI of the Constitution.
The reversal is also grounded upon the asserted error in an instruction which is not challenged by the appellant. This instruction is phrased in the exact language of section 1105 of the Penal Code and many times has received judicial approval. (People v. Boggs, 12 Cal.2d 27, 35 [82 P.2d 368] ; People v. Madison, 3 Cal.2d 668, 676-677, [46 P.2d 159] ; People v. Grill, 151 Cal. 592, 595 [91 P. 515]; People v. McClure, 148 Cal. 418, 421 [83 P. 437]; People v. Leddy, 95 Cal.App. 659, 672 [273 P. 110]; People v. Richards, 1 Cal.App. 566, 571 [82 P. 691].) The criticism directed at that instruction in the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Traynor in People v. Albertson, 23 Cal.2d 550, 586-588 [145 P.2d 7], is a statement of his views only. The cases of People v. Post, 208 Cal. 433 [281 P. 618], People v. Bushton, 80 Cal. 160 [22 P. 127, 549], and People v. Elliott, 80 Cal. 296 [22 P. 207], which were cited by him involved a different instruction which did not follow the language of Penal Code section 1105. Among other things, the instruction in those cases contained the following: “That is, the killing being proved, the defendant must make out his case in mitigation to excuse or justify by some proof stronger in some appreciable degree than the proof of the prosecution. The burden of proof changes. It must be in some degree, no matter how small, stronger than the proof of the prosecution on the other side. ’ ’ In other words, the challenged instruction required" proof of mitigating circumb stances by a preponderance of the evidence. (See criticism of this language in People v. Post, supra, 437, and in People v. Madison, 3 Cal.2d 668, 676-677 [46 P.2d 159].)
The instruction in the present case is not open to this objection. Moreover, the jury which found Thomas guilty was clearly instructed that a defendant is presumed innocent “and, in order to convict him of the crime alleged ... or of any lesser crime which may be included in it, every material *913fact necessary to constitute such crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt and, if you entertain a reasonable doubt upon any single fact or element necessary to constitute the crime, it is your duty to give the defendant the benefit of such doubt and acquit him. ’ ’ Additionally, the jury was charged that if it believed “from all the evidence in the ease beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of homicide, but have a doubt as to the degree of the offense of which the defendant is guilty—whether it is murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or manslaughter, the jury will give the defendant the benefit of such doubt and find him guilty only of the lowest offense as to which they may find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
For these reasons, in my opinion, the judgment should be affirmed.
Shenk, J., concurred.