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Crawford v. State10/20/2005
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The specific intent to perpetrate or attempt to perpetrate Burglary must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
As noted, the jury was also properly instructed respecting the charge of burglary and the other alleged underlying crimes of assault and battery. Thus, the jury was clearly and correctly instructed that Crawford could not be found guilty of felony murder unless he committed the killing during the perpetration of a burglary. To the extent that Crawford may contend otherwise, we reject that contention.
Second, we also reject Crawford's contention that Apprendi calls into question this court's prior holdings concluding that jury unanimity on a single theory of the crime is not required. Where the State proceeds on alternative theories of first-degree felony murder and willful, deliberate, and premeditated first-degree murder, we have consistently held that the jury need not unanimously agree on a single theory of the murder. In Apprendi, the Supreme Court held that facts in support of a sentencing enhancement, other than a prior conviction, must be determined by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi does not undermine the rationale of our holdings respecting jury unanimity on alternative theories of murder and provides no support for revisiting our reasoning on that issue.
Under our prior holdings, the jury was properly instructed in this case that its verdict had to be unanimous as to the charge of first-degree murder, but that unanimity was not required on whether that charge was established under a theory of felony murder or under a theory of willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder. It follows, therefore, that Crawford's proposed instruction requiring all of the jurors to be unanimous on the burglary allegation before any of the jurors could consider the charge of felony murder is legally erroneous. Any jurors who found beyond a reasonable doubt that Crawford committed a willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder were under no legal obligation to consider the felony-murder theory at all, let alone the element of burglary at issue under that theory.
The Proposed "Heat-of-Passion" Instruction
Crawford argues that the district court committed reversible error by refusing to give his proposed jury instruction K. The instruction read:
If after consideration of all the evidence you have a reasonable doubt as to whether or not the defendant acted in a heat of passion, you must return a verdict of voluntary manslaughter. This is because the state has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in the heat of passion.
The district court rejected the proposed instruction on the ground that it was substantially covered by the other instructions. As discussed below, we conclude that the district court erred in refusing to provide an instruction incorporating the substance of Crawford's proposed language. Nevertheless, we also conclude that under the facts and circumstances of this case the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
This court has consistently held that "the defense has the right to have the jury instructed on its theory of the case as disclosed by the evidence, no matter how weak or incredible that evidence may be." The jury in this case was not specifically or expressly instructed that the State had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Crawford did not act in the heat of passion and upon the provocation required by law. The jury was instructed generally that the State had the "burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt every material element of the crime charged," and that if it "was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt" tha
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