State v. GrunowState v. Grunow
At the heart of the matter factually was the inconstancy оf the victim‘s wife. In 1977 she was defendant‘s secretary and mistress. In 1980 she took up residence with the victim. Thereafter she alternated, spending several months with one man and then several with the other. She finally married the victim about two months before defendant bludgeoned him to death. According to defendant, shortly after the wedding he resumed having sexual relations with her. There is no dispute that they were together for lunch at his home on the day of the homicide.
Later that day defendant and the victim met. The victim did not survive the encounter. The facts leading to the homicide were very much in dispute. For our purposes it is enough to know that without objection the judge permitted the jury to consider whether defendant was guilty of purposeful murder, knowing murder, aggravated manslaughter, reckless manslaughter or provocation/passion manslaughter. The jury was also instructed to consider whether defendant acted in self-defense.
Now, the second type of manslaughter is criminal homicide which would otherwise be murder except that it was committed in the heat of passion resulting from a reasonable provocation.
....
... The provocation must be so gross as to cause the ordinary reаsonable man to lose his self control and use violence with fatal results and you must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was in fact deprived of his self control and under the stress of the provocation that confronted him and that he committed the crime while so deprived.
Six hours into their deliberations, the jury asked the judge to define the crimes with which defendant was charged and to explain the defense of self-defense. The judge repeated his original charge verbatim.
After the jury was excused to resume their deliberations, defendant‘s attorney objected that the quoted language “would operate to suggest that the burden of proof is upon the defendant to indicate and to show beyond a reasonable doubt that he was deprived of his self control.” The judge responded that the charge “was taken from the model charge ... and I think the language does not in any way suggest that the burden is upon the defendant to prove anything.” In fact the judge departed from the language of the model jury charge and incorrectly instructed the jury that in order to convict defendant of provocation/passion manslaughter they must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he was acting under the stress of reasonable provocation.
“Criminal homicide constitutes manslaughter when ... [a] homicide which would otherwise be murder ... is committed in the heat of passion resulting from a reasonable provocation.”
Although the modеl jury charge does not expressly refer to the burden of proof, it correctly states the rule:
... If you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly or purposely caused the victim‘s death, but you have a reasonable doubt as to whether he did so in the heat of passion upon a reasonable provocation, then you must find the defendant guilty of manslaughter.
By preventing the jury from finding defendant guilty of provocation/passion manslaughter unless they were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was acting under the stress of reasonable provocation, the judge deprived defendant of a full оpportunity to be found guilty of second-degree manslaughter instead of first-degree aggravated manslaughter.
Confusion in placing the burden of proof may have arisen because the model jury charge does not expressly place the burden on the State to negate the provocation/passion elements of manslaughter and because the presence of those elements is correctly perceived to benefit the defendant. Where a defendant is being tried for a more serious crime the availability of a provocation/passion manslaughter verdict gives him a chance to avoid a guilty verdict for the crime charged even though all the elements of that crime have been established. In such a case the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not reasonably provoked to passion if it expects to prove that his conduct constituted the more serious offensе. Where provocation/passion manslaughter is the most serious crime charged, the State necessarily concedes that the defendant was reasonably provoked to homicidal passion.
The State argues that the error was harmless. It contends that by acquitting defendant of murder, the jury could not then have found him guilty of provocation/passion manslaughter because, in keeping with
Accepting the State‘s invitation to sail the uncertain seas of speculation upon the reasons for a jury‘s acquittal, we come to a different shore. We must assume that the jury followed the trial judge‘s erroneous charge and ruled out provocation/passion manslaughter because they were not cоnvinced beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant acted under the stress of reasonable provocation in committing what would otherwise be a purposeful or knowing murder. This left the jury a choice of finding defendant guilty of murder or first-degree aggravated manslaughter. Again favoring defendant with our assumptions, we must further assume thаt the jury shrank from returning a murder verdict not because the elements of that crime were missing but because of lenity based on a belief that defendant was probably reasonably provoked to a passion to kill. Had they been properly instructed, a jury of that mind would have found defendant guilty of second-degree provoсation/passion manslaughter.
The State insists that we cannot assume that a jury, having found the elements of murder, would have found defendant guilty of anything but murder. Therefore, argues the State, the jury must have rejected a murder verdict on the
The trial judge‘s erroneous instruction which misplaced the burden of proof on defendant had the clear capacity to lead the jury to a wrong verdict. We must therefore reverse and
Purposeful murder, knowing murder, aggravated manslaughter and reckless manslaughter are criminal homicides that lie on a descending scale of culpability. Each requires that the actor be aware that his conduct at least poses a risk to the victim of death or serious bodily injury resulting in death. To be guilty of purposeful murder the actor must have death or serious bodily injury as his conscious object.
Section 2C:11-3 of the Criminal Law Revision Commission Report proposed that criminal homicide would constitute “murder” when:
(1) it is committed purposely; or
(2) it is committed knowingly; or
(3) it is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human lifе.
(4) [felony murder]2
Knowledge that the act which causes death will probably cause the death of, or grievous bodily harm to, some person, whether such pеrson is the person actually killed or not, although such knowledge is accompanied by indifference whether death or grievous bodily harm is caused or not, or by a wish that it may not be caused.... [State v. Gardner, 51 N.J. 444, 458 (1968)]
As ultimately adopted by the Legislature, the Committee Report‘s third category of “murder” was lowered to first-degree aggravated manslaughter.
Criminal homicide constitutes aggravated manslaughter when the actor recklessly causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.
Under pre-Code law, the malice necessary to constitute murder could be dissipated by the mitigating elements of provocation/passion manslaughter. State v. Brown, 22 N.J. 405, 411 (1956). Section 2C:11-4(a)(2) of the Commission Report would reduce to provocation/passion manslaughter “a homicide which would otherwise be murder.”
We are convinced that the Legislature did not intend such a result. It would be contrary to pre-Code law and lead to the absurd result that a defendant charged with murder would be eligible to have the crime reduced to second-degree provocation/passion manslaughter but a defendant charged with the lesser offense of first-degree aggravated manslaughter would not.
The Legislature‘s primary purpose in creating the crime of provocation/passion manslaughter was to reduce to a second-degree crime a homicidal assault by an actor in the grip of the mitigating elemеnts of that crime. Murder and aggravated manslaughter are the only higher crimes that can, in a proper case, be so reduced. There is no reason other than oversight to explain why the Legislature lowered a category of criminal homicide from murder to aggravated manslaughter without retaining the mitigating alternative of provocation/passion manslaughter. We are bound to read a statute in a way that serves the obvious intent of the Legislature even though its language does not. In N.J. Builders, Owners and Managers Association v. Blair, 60 N.J. 330, 338 (1972), the Supreme Court said:
In reading and interpreting a statute, primary regard must be given to the fundamental purpose for which the legislation was enacted. Where a literal rendering will lead to a result not in accord with the essential purpose and design of the act, the spirit of the law will control the letter. This doctrine permeates our case law.
See also New Capitol Bar & Grill Corp. v. Div. of Employment Sec., 25 N.J. 155, 160 (1957).
Defendant contends that the trial judge exceeded his discretion in admitting into evidence the showing of a four-minute video tape depicting the recovery of the victim‘s body from a buried sealed metal barrel and admitting into evidence the barrel itself. These exhibits were offered to prove defendant‘s state of mind at the time of the killing. Defendant further contends that the judge erred in admitting into evidence a mannequin offered to aid the State in demonstrating the location of wounds on the victim‘s body. We cannot say that the trial judge abused the broad discretion he had in admitting these items into evidence despite their “emotional stirring” quality. State v. Thompson, 59 N.J. 396, 420-421 (1971). We note, however, that at the new trial the judge must make a fresh evaluation of the admissibility of this еvidence. State v. Hale, 127 N.J. Super. 407, 413 (App.Div. 1974).
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.
Notes
The trial judge defined knowing murder to the jury as follows:
... A person who commits a killing does so knowingly when he is aware that what he is doing will cause death or serious bodily injury resulting in death or is practically certain to cause death or serious bodily injury resulting in death. [Emphasis added]
Criminal homicide constitutes aggravated manslaughter when the actor recklessly causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.
After defining “reсklessly” the judge explained “causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life” as follows:
... It means that the defendant acted with a conscious and callous disregard of human life and that he was aware that his conduct was practically certain to kill, he nonetheless conducted himself with no regard for that risk. [Emphasis added]
Instead of differentiating between knowing murder‘s risk of “practically certain” death and aggravated manslaughter‘s risk of “probability” of death, State v. Curtis, 195 N.J. Super. 354, 364 (App.Div. 1984), certif. den., 99 N.J. 212 (1984), the judge instructed the jury that the risk in both cases is the same.