Goodall v. United States

• Decision Date: 13 February 1950
• Docket Number: No. 10241.,10241.
• Citation: 86 US App. DC 148,180 F.2d 397
• Parties: GOODALL v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

86 US App. DC 148, 180 F.2d 397 (1950)

GOODALL v. UNITED STATES.

No. 10241.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued November 14, 1949.

Decided February 13, 1950.

Writ of Certiorari Denied June 5, 1950.

Mr. Alfred Goldstein, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. James A. O'Shea, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant.

Mr. John D. Lane, Assistant United States Attorney, Washington, D. C., with whom Messrs. George Morris Fay, United States Attorney, and John C. Conliff, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellee.

Mr. Joseph M. Howard, Assistant United States Attorney, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellee.

Before CLARK, WILBUR K. MILLER and WASHINGTON, Circuit Judges.

Writ of Certiorari Denied June 5, 1950. See 70 S.Ct. 1009.

WILBUR K. MILLER, Circuit Judge.

Convicted of murder in the first degree by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and sentenced to death, Lawrence Goodall appeals.

The victim, Nathaniel Johnson, was a colored druggist in the southwest section of the District of Columbia. About 10:00 o'clock in the evening of October 12, 1948, a young Negro man entered Johnson's store, pointed a pistol at him and said, "Dr. Johnson, this is a hold-up." Johnson turned and ran. As he did so the bandit shot and killed him, then fled from the store. Edna Muse, a customer who had just made a purchase, was waiting for change when the murderer came in. She was less than ten feet away from Johnson when the shooting took place. The store was well lighted. Joseph Jenkins, a fifteen-year-old boy, entered the drug store "About a couple of minutes after ten." As he entered he saw the bandit "aim a pistol and shoot", and saw his face as he left the scene.

Edward Jackson was arrested and charged with the murder. He made a complete confession, and at the trial testified he and Lawrence Goodall had been together most of that day, that Goodall proposed they rob the drug store but that he declined and Goodall proceeded to do the job alone, while he loitered in the vicinity. In a lineup at police headquarters Goodall was identified by Edna Muse and Joseph Jenkins as the man who had shot and killed Nathaniel Johnson. The appellant sought to establish an alibi by telling the jury he went home at 9:30 p. m. and remained there. He was corroborated by his mother.

Several grounds for reversal are urged. First Goodall says his motion to dismiss the indictment was erroneously denied; and second, apparently alternatively, he says the indictment charged no more than second degree murder and that he was therefore wrongly convicted thereunder of murder in the first degree.

These contentions make it necessary to examine the indictment and the statute under which it was returned. Murder in the first degree is defined in Title 22, §§ 2401 and 2402, of the District of Columbia Code (1940). Section 2401, applicable here, is as follows: "Whoever, being of sound memory and discretion, kills another purposely, either of deliberate and premeditated malice or by means of poison, or in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate any offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or without purpose so to do kills another in perpetrating or in attempting to perpetrate any arson, as defined in section 22 — 401 or 22 — 402 of this Code, rape, mayhem, robbery, or kidnapping, or in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate any housebreaking while armed with or using a dangerous weapon, is guilty of murder in the first degree. (Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1321, ch. 854, § 798; June 12, 1940, 54 Stat. 347, ch. 339, § 1.)"

Any killing with malice aforethought, except as provided in §§ 2401 and 2402, is murder in the second degree.

The indictment was as follows: "On or about October 12, 1948, within the District of Columbia, Lawrence Goodall and Edward Jackson, Junior attempted to perpetrate a robbery by stealing and taking, by force and violence and against resistance and by putting in fear, from the immediate actual possession of Nathaniel Johnson certain valuable property; and in and while attempting to perpetrate the robbery in the manner aforesaid, defendants shot and murdered Nathaniel Johnson with a pistol held in the hand of Lawrence Goodall."

The appellant argues the indictment should have been dismissed because it "failed to charge either a `purposeful' killing or a killing `without purpose.'" He says he cannot tell which portion of the statute he was charged with violating.

It will be observed that § 2401 not only denounces as first degree murder a purposeful killing done either with premeditated malice or in committing or attempting to commit a felony, but also characterizes as such a killing done in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any one of five enumerated felonies, although there was no purpose to kill. As the present indictment did not charge Goodall with purposely killing Johnson, but only with killing him while attempting to rob him, it was necessarily found under the second segment of the statute in which the intent to kill is not an ingredient of the crime and need not be alleged or proved.

This court said in Mumforde v. United States, 1942, 76 U.S.App.D.C. 107, 109, 130 F.2d 411, 413, certiorari denied 317 U.S. 656, 63 S.Ct. 53, 87 L.Ed. 527: "* * * The applicable statute in the District of Columbia defines murder in the first degree as the killing of another while armed with or using a dangerous weapon in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a robbery. As the statute was a few years ago, it was necessary to show that the killing was done `purposely' to raise the offense to first degree murder. See Jordon v. United States, 66 App.D.C. 309, 87 F.2d 64. In June, 1940, Congress, at the request of the Attorney General, amended the law so that it now provides that the offense is perpetrated even when the killing is `without purpose so to do'. Thus, the statute is brought into line with those of many of the States, where a killing committed in an attempted burglary or robbery is declared to be murder in the first degree, and it has been held in those States that the offense is complete even though there was no intent or desire to kill. People v. Smith, Sup., 187 N.Y.S. 836, and State v. McNeal, Mo. Sup., 237 S.W. 738, are typical."

We held in Burton v. United States, 1945, 80 U.S.App.D.C. 208, 151 F.2d 17, certiorari denied 326 U.S. 789, 66 S.Ct. 473, 90 L.Ed. 479, that even though an indictment charged murder in the first degree consisting of purposeful killing and tendered no issue of robbery, proof that the homicide was committed during the perpetration of a robbery legally took the place of that premeditation to kill which is necessary for murder in the first degree.

In Wheeler v. United States, 1947, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 363, 367, 165 F.2d 225, 229, certiorari denied 1948, 333 U.S. 829, 68 S. Ct. 448, 92 L.Ed. 1115, a case strikingly similar to this one, we further said with respect to § 2401: "* * * As the statute plainly shows, the crime which it denounces is murder committed during the perpetration of a robbery. The fact that a robbery was in progress is simply the element of proof which is necessary in order to convert the killing, done incidentally in the course of the robbery, into first degree murder. In other words, one who kills as he robs is charged by the statute with having that degree of malice which is indispensable to murder in the first degree."

It is thus thoroughly established in this jurisdiction that a homicide committed, "without purpose so to do", in the course of the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a robbery is murder in the first degree. "Where the intent is a material ingredient of the crime it is necessary to be averred; * * *." Evans v. United States, 1894, 153 U.S. 584, 594, 14 S.Ct. 934, 939, 38 L.Ed. 830. But where, as here, a homicide may be first degree murder when there was no intent to kill, the lack of intent to do so is not a material ingredient of the crime and need not be alleged. The sufficiency of a criminal pleading should be determined by practical rather than by technical considerations. Tatum v. United States, 1940, 71 App.D.C. 393, 110 F.2d 555.

The indictment informed Goodall in the plainest sort of language that he was charged with killing Nathaniel Johnson while attempting to rob him, i. e., that he was accused of murder in the first degree. Consequently, we reject his contentions that his motion to dismiss the indictment was erroneously denied and that he was charged with and could have been convicted only of murder in the second degree.

The appellant also claims error in the District Court's failure to tell the jury that, if they believed him guilty of the killing but had a reasonable doubt as to whether he had been proved guilty of murder in the first degree or murder in the second degree, they should resolve that doubt in his favor and find him guilty of the lesser crime. The court did not in so many words instruct the jury to that effect. The prosecution endeavors to show, however, that the court's charge as a whole, when carefully analyzed, is seen to contain what is tantamount to that admonition. We need not and do not decide whether the government is correct in making that assertion, because we regard the question as immaterial. An instruction such as that which the appellant says should have been given is necessary only...