State v. Hall

915 N.W.2d 528
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMay 29, 2018
DocketA17-0710
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 915 N.W.2d 528 (State v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hall, 915 N.W.2d 528 (Mich. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

ISSUES

I. Was the stipulated evidence presented at trial sufficient to support appellant's third-degree murder conviction?

II. Was the district court's determination that appellant failed to establish the mental-illness defense clear error?

ANALYSIS

I.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting her conviction of third-degree murder. Appellant argues that the state failed to prove that she acted "without intent to effect the death of any person" and that her conviction must be reversed. Appellant argues that because the district court found that she acted with the intent to kill herself, she cannot be guilty of third-degree murder. Where "the meaning of a criminal statute is intertwined with the issue of whether the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant violated the statute, it is often necessary to interpret a criminal statute when evaluating an insufficiency-of-the-evidence claim." State v. Vasko , 889 N.W.2d 551, 556 (Minn. 2017). Because the meaning of the statute is intertwined with appellant's sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge, we must interpret Minn. Stat. § 609.195(a) (2014).

A.

When a sufficiency-of-the-evidence claim involves the question of whether the appellant's conduct meets the statutory definition of an offense, we are presented with a question of statutory interpretation we review de novo. State v. Hayes , 826 N.W.2d 799, 803 (Minn. 2013). Minnesota Statutes section 609.195(a) provides:

Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.

*534Appellant argues that the phrase "without intent to effect the death of any person" is an element of third-degree murder. We agree. When the legislature "includes the absence of a fact in the definition of an offense, the absence of that fact is generally treated as an element of the offense." State v. Burg , 648 N.W.2d 673, 678 (Minn. 2002). Although this rule has not been universally applied, "our more recent cases have consistently treated such language as creating an element of an offense." Id. at 678-79 (first citing In re Welfare of L.Z. , 396 N.W.2d 214, 218 (Minn. 1986) ; then citing State v. Brechon , 352 N.W.2d 745, 750 (Minn. 1984) ). The legislature's decision to embed the phrase "without intent to effect the death of any person" in the definition of the offense of third-degree murder demonstrated its intent to include the absence of that intent as one of the facts necessary for conviction. See Burg , 648 N.W.2d at 678.

The lack of intent to effect the death of any person is integral to the definition of third-degree murder because the statute was "intended to cover cases where the reckless or wanton acts of the accused were committed without special regard to their effect on any particular person or persons ; the act must be committed without a special design upon the particular person or persons with whose murder the accused is charged." State v.Wahlberg , 296 N.W.2d 408, 417 (Minn. 1980) (emphasis added) (first citing State v. Hanson , 286 Minn. 317, 328-29, 176 N.W.2d 607, 614-15 (1970) ; then citing State v. Lowe , 66 Minn. 296, 68 N.W. 1094 (1896) ). "Third-degree murder occurs when death is caused without intent to kill and 'excludes a situation where the animus of [a] defendant is directed toward one person only.' " Stiles v. State , 664 N.W.2d 315, 321 (Minn. 2003) (quoting Hanson , 286 Minn. at 329, 176 N.W.2d at 614-15 ) (citation omitted). Put differently, the statute covers circumstances where the defendant acts with a general recklessness and without the intent to effect the death of any person, including the specific victim of that reckless action. Accordingly, we conclude that the state must prove as an element that a defendant acted without the intent to effect the death of any person to sustain a conviction for third-degree murder.

The state, relying on State v. Cole , 542 N.W.2d 43 (Minn. 1996), argues that the third-degree murder statute must be read along with the entire regime of homicide statutes and that the language "without intent to effect the death of any person" is not an element of the crime but instead relieves the state of the burden of proving specific intent without requiring affirmative proof that there was no such intent. But Cole addressed only whether guilty verdicts for first-degree and second-degree intentional murder were legally inconsistent with a verdict for second-degree felony murder. 542 N.W.2d at 45.

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Related

State v. Hall
931 N.W.2d 737 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2019)

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Bluebook (online)
915 N.W.2d 528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hall-minnctapp-2018.