State v. EdwardsState v. Edwards
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Loiseule
The defendant, Joseph Edwards, Jr., was indicted by a grand jury for the crime of murder in the first degree in that he “wilfully, deliberately with premeditation and malice aforethought and while in the perpetration of a robbery, did assault, stab and Mil one Wilbert Nails in violation of Section 53-9 of the Connecticut General Statutes.” A jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. After a hearing in accordance with the provisions of
The defendant offered no evidence and does not claim to have proved any facts. The state’s claims of proof may be summarized as follows: At ap
In its charge, the court read verbatim the indictment as it had been received from the grand jury. After the preliminary instructions usual to a criminal proceeding, it detailed the four elements essential to the proof of murder. It then charged the jury that, to find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, they must find that the state had proved a fifth element. The court specified two circumstances which would constitute that fifth element: If the state established the four elements comprising murder and “also that the killing was wilful, deliberate and premeditated . . . then the crime would be murder in the first degree”; “if in addition to those four elements the state also proves a fifth element, namely, that the murder was committed in the perpetration of robbery as alleged in the indictment, it becomes by force of law murder in the first degree. The fact that the murder is committed in the commission of a robbery makes it murder in the first degree by statutory definition. A further specific finding that it was done wilfully, deliberately and with premeditation is not required under this phase of the statute which I have read to you.” The court also stated: “[I]n reviewing up to this point, if the State has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the five elements in each instance that I have described and thus has failed to prove that the murder was a wilful, deliberate and premeditated
Near the end of the charge, the court again emphasized that, if the jury found that the state had proved the four essential elements comprising murder, and found either that the murder was willful, deliberate and premeditated or that it occurred while in the perpetration of a robbery, the defendant would be guilty of murder in the first degree. The court substantially repeated these directions when the jury returned for further instructions.
The defendant claims that the court’s instruction was in effect an amendment or alteration of the grand jury indictment; that the jury charge was erroneous because it charged two distinct and separate offenses in one count; that the indictment and jury charge failed to inform the accused with sufficient certainty of the crime for which he was convicted; and that the jury charge failed to give the jury sufficiently clear instructions with which to weigh the evidence and reach a verdict.
At common law, an indictment could be amended only by the grand jury.
Merriam
v.
Langdon,
10 Conn. 460, 471; note, 17 A.L.R.3d 1181, 1201; see also
Ex parte Bain,
121 U.S. 1, 7 S. Ct. 781, 30 L. Ed. 849,
Dodge
v.
United States,
258 F. 300 (2d Cir.), for the same rule in federal eases. The defendant has briefed innumerable cases on the subject and all support this principle. They are not applicable, however, to this case because the court read the indictment returned by the grand jury verbatim to the jury and the jury had the unaltered indictment with them during their deliberations. While the defendant admits that the indictment was not physically
The defendant’s claim that the indictment charges two distinct and separate offenses in one count is not well-founded.
There is, therefore, no merit in the defendant’s claim that first-degree murder, committed during the perpetration of a robbery, constitutes an offense which is different from first-degree murder committed in a willful, deliberate and premeditated fashion. At common law, murder is the unlawful killing of one human being by another with malice aforethought;
State
v.
McGuire,
84 Conn. 470, 481, 80 A. 761; and includes homicide which is committed without an intent to kill, if it occurs in the prosecution of a felonious intention. 2 Swift, Digest, p. 278. Thus, by our common law, an unlawful killing which is either willful, deliberate and premeditated or perpetrated in the commission of a felony is murder. See
State
v.
Cross,
72 Conn. 722, 729, 46 A. 148. Prior to 1846, Connecticut did not distinguish among the various ways of committing murder for the purpose of imposing varying punishments. See
State
v.
Dowd,
19 Conn. 388, 391. The pre-1846 common law demonstrates that the courts viewed these alterna
Chapter 16 of the Public Acts of 1846 provided that the punishment for murder should differ according to the atrociousness of the manner in which it was committed. Smith v. State, 50 Conn. 193, 196; State v. Dowd, supra, 392. It did not, however, alter or expand the conduct which constituted murder at common law. State v. Walters, 145 Conn. 60, 71, 138 A.2d 786, cert. denied, 358 U.S. 46, 79 S. Ct. 70, 3 L. Ed. 2d 45; State v. Kurz, 131 Conn. 54, 61, 37 A.2d 808; State v. Jacowitz, 128 Conn. 40, 44, 20 A.2d 470. Killing willfully, deliberately and with premeditation, and killing in the perpetration of a robbery, are among the ways of committing murder which were designated first-degree murder and subject to more stringent punishment than other methods. There is, therefore, no basis to the defendant’s claim that he was indicted for two distinct and separate offenses in one count. He was indicted only for the single offense of first-degree murder. The state offered evidence of a robbery, as well as evidence of willfulness, deliberateness and premeditation, only to support its claim that the murder committed was first-degree murder. People v. Jackson, 20 N.Y.2d 440, 450, 231 N.E.2d 722; People v. Lytton, 257 N.Y. 310, 178 N.E. 290; see also McGuigan v. State, 281 A.2d 480 (Del.).
The defendant also claims that the indictment and charge to the jury failed to inform him of the exact nature of the offense with which he was charged. The indictment clearly stated that the defendant was charged with first-degree murder. It thus complied with the requirements of § 493 of the Practice Book in that it charged only one crime and stated conjunctively the two ways in which it was committed, i.e.,
The defendant also argues that the court in effect amended the indictment by charging that the jury could find him guilty of first-degree murder if they found that he had committed the murder either willfully, deliberately and with premeditation or in the course of a robbery, thus creating ambiguity as to the exact crime with which he was charged. It is the defendant’s position that, since the indictment was a single count charging conjunctively, the jury should have been instructed that he was guilty of first-degree murder only if the murder was committed in the perpetration of a robbery and was -willful, deliberate and premeditated.
The indictment charged only one offense and the
The defendant’s claim that the court improperly charged that proof of either of the alternative ways of committing murder charged by the state would establish first-degree murder cannot be sustained. The case of
Smith
v.
State,
19 Conn. 493, relied on by the defendant, is not controlling on this issue. In that case the defendant was charged in one count with several, different offenses. In the case at bar, the defendant, as indicated, was charged only with murder in the first degree. In
State
v.
Falk,
66 Conn. 250, 256, 33 A. 913, which involves a comparable situation, the defendant was charged in one count with one offense: “the keeping of . . . one place . . . for the purpose of recording and registering bets and wagers, and (for the purpose) of buying and selling pools.” Keeping a place for either of these purposes was prohibited. The court, in
State
v.
Falk,
supra, noted that the defendant was charged with only one act — the keeping of a place associated with gambling. That this act could be established in either of two ways did not charge two offenses. Proof that the act occurred in either way, or both ways, shows that the single crime charged was committed. See
State
v.
De Ladson,
66 Conn. 7, 9, 33 A. 531, The trial judge was not in error in directing the jury that the defendant was guilty of first-degree murder if they believed beyond a reasonable doubt that he had committed murder in either of the two ways advanced by the state. It is noteworthy that in
State
v.
Feltovic,
110 Conn. 303, 307,
The defendant’s final assignment of error is that the charge to the jury was confusing and unclear. The instructions in question are an almost verbatim recital of the statute. The jurors were clearly instructed to render a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree only if they found that the defendant committed murder in either of the two ways which the state asserted. Although not expressly stated, the court clearly instructed the jury that they must be unanimous in their finding as to the particular way, or ways, in which the defendant committed murder. The jury could not have been confused in this regard. The trial court’s response to the question asked by a juror was also clear and unambiguous. “Of necessity, additional instructions given in immediate response to a request are more informal and expressed with less exactness than are studiously prepared formal charges.”
State
v.
Parker,
114 Conn. 354, 368, 158 A. 797. The trial court’s answer
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Notes
Since the time that this case was argued, the Supreme Court of the United States has decided the case of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346, involving the death penalty-in state statutes. As the sentence in the case before us was of life imprisonment, the ruling in the Furman case does not apply.