Jahnke v. State
| Citation | 682 P.2d 991 |
| Decision Date | 06 June 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-70,83-70 |
| Parties | Richard John JAHNKE, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming |
James H. Barrett of Trierweiler, Bayless, Barrett & McCartney, Cheyenne, for appellant.
A.G. McClintock, Atty. Gen., Gerald A. Stack, Deputy Atty. Gen., Dennis C. Cook, Asst. Atty. Gen., Thomas J. Carroll, Dist. Atty., Allen C. Johnson, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and John Forwood, Deputy Dist. Atty., First Judicial Dist., for appellee.
Before ROONEY, C.J., and THOMAS, ROSE, BROWN and CARDINE, JJ.
The essential questions presented in this case arise out of a notion that a victim of abuse has some special justification for patricide. The specific questions posed relate to limitations imposed by the trial judge upon voir dire examination of members of the selected panel of jurors and the admissibility of testimony from a forensic psychiatrist intended to support the theory of self-defense espoused by the appellant, Richard John Jahnke. In addition there is a claim that the district judge abused his discretion in imposing sentence upon a conviction of voluntary manslaughter which was the result of the jury's deliberations. The district judge refused to permit counsel for the defendant to inquire of members of the panel of jurors about their attitudes with respect to specific conduct of the deceased father in disciplining his children both physically and psychologically or to inquire whether any member of the jury panel felt that there was no justification ever for the taking of a human life. The district court also ruled that the forensic psychiatrist could not testify about statements made to him by the appellant. After the jury's verdict was returned and an appropriate presentence investigation was completed and reviewed the district judge sentenced the appellant to a term of not less than five years nor more than fifteen years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. This sentence was imposed even though the appellant was sixteen years of age at the time the offense was committed. We have concluded that there was no error with respect to the respective rulings made by the district court in connection with this case, and that the court did not abuse its discretion in the imposition of sentence. We shall affirm the conviction and the judgment and sentence entered thereon.
The case is not remarkable so far as the procedural steps are concerned. The appellant's father, Richard Chester Jahnke, died on November 16, 1982, as a result of gunshot wounds. Those gunshot wounds were inflicted by the appellant, and that fact has never been an issue in this case. On November 18, 1982, a criminal complaint was filed in the County Court for Laramie County charging the appellant with first degree murder 1 and with conspiring with his sister, Deborah Ann Jahnke, to commit first degree murder. 2 On the same date that the complaint was filed the appellant was arrested; he was given appropriate advice with respect to his constitutional rights; and he was informed of the charges against him. On November 22, 1982, an appearance bond was set in the amount of $50,000, and the appellant was released the following day. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing which earlier had been set for November 29, 1982, and an Information which encompassed the same charges as the criminal complaint was filed in the District Court of the First Judicial District in and for Laramie County on December 1, 1982.
Arraignment was set for December 3, 1982, but on December 2, 1982, a number of motions were filed on behalf of the appellant, including a Motion to Transfer to Juvenile Court System and a motion to continue the arraignment until after the court had ruled upon the transfer motion. The appellant was arraigned on December 3, 1982, as scheduled, and he entered a plea of not guilty to both charges in the Information. At that time the State of Wyoming advised the court that it would not seek the death penalty in the case, and a hearing on the transfer motion filed by the appellant was set for January 10, 1983. After the appellant peremptorily challenged the district judge to whom the case had been assigned, the hearing on his pending motions was reset for January 17, 1983. Ultimately the hearing on the motions was continued until January 21, 1983, at the behest of the appellant.
A two-day hearing was conducted with respect to the appellant's motions, and at that hearing he presented evidence and psychiatric testimony demonstrating that he had suffered from mental and physical abuse at the hands of his father over a long period of his life. Following the hearing, however, the court denied the appellant's motion to transfer the case to juvenile court, and it was set for trial on February 14, 1983. The trial began as scheduled on February 14, 1983, and the case was submitted to the jury on February 19, 1983. The jury, by its verdict, found the appellant not guilty of the charge of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, and found him guilty on the first degree murder count of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter. The appellant then filed a Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and New Trial together with a Motion and Application for Bail Pending Sentence, and both of these motions were denied. The presentence investigation was ordered, and sentencing was set for March 18, 1983. The trial judge imposed the sentence of a term of not less than five years nor more than fifteen years in the state penitentiary, and the written Judgment and Sentence of the court was entered on March 21, 1983. It is from this judgment and sentence that the appellant has taken this appeal.
In his brief in this appeal the appellant articulates three issues which he asks the court to resolve. These are stated in that brief as follows:
The State of Wyoming, as appellee, substantially agrees with the appellant as to the issues, but it attaches a different emphasis to them in stating the issues in its brief as follows:
The material facts relating to the death of the appellant's father can be briefly stated. On the night of his death the father took the mother out to dinner, apparently to celebrate the anniversary of their meeting. Earlier the appellant had been involved in a violent altercation with his father, and he had been warned not to be at the home when the father and mother returned. During the absence of his parents the appellant made elaborate preparation for the final confrontation with his father. He changed into dark clothing and prepared a number of weapons which he positioned at various places throughout the family home that he selected to serve as "backup" positions in case he was not successful in his first effort to kill his father. These weapons included two shotguns, three rifles, a .38 caliber pistol and a Marine knife. In addition, he armed his sister, Deborah, with a .30 caliber M-1 carbine which he taught her how to operate so that she could protect herself in the event that he failed in his efforts. The appellant removed the family pets from the garage to the basement to protect them from injury in a potential exchange of gunfire between him and his father, and he closed the garage door. He then waited inside the darkened garage in a position where he could not be seen but which permitted him to view the lighted driveway on the other side of the garage door. Shortly before 6:30 p.m. the parents returned, and the appellant's father got out of the vehicle and came to the garage door. The appellant was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with slugs, and when he could see the head and shoulders of his father through the spacing of the slats of the shade covering the windows of the garage door, he blew his R.O.T.C. command-sergeant-major's whistle for courage, and he opened fire. All six cartridges in the shotgun were expended, and four of them in one way or another struck the father. The most serious wound was caused by a slug which entered the father on the right chest just above and to the inside of the right nipple, followed a trajectory which took it through the right rib cage and the right lobe of the liver, bruising the right lung and tearing the diaphragm along the way, into the middle of the chest cavity where it passed behind the heart nearly severing the aorta inferior vena cava and the esophagus, then through the lower lobe of the left lung, finally lodging just under the skin in the mid-part of the victim's back. About one hour after the shooting incident the father was pronounced dead from the wounds inflicted by the appellant.
After the shooting, and while the mother still was screaming in the driveway, the appellant and his sister exited the family home through a window in the mother's bedroom, which was at the far end of the house from the garage. The appellant and his sister then went separate ways, and the appellant was arrested at the home of his girl friend. Prior to the arrival of authorities the appellant told his girl friend's father that he had shot his dad for revenge. Subsequently, after being advised of his constitutional rights, the appellant made a statement in which he explained he had shot his father "for past things."
Prior to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Engberg v. State
...as constitutionally mandated by the due-process clauses of the state and federal constitutions. 3 In the recent case of Jahnke v. State, Wyo., 682 P.2d 991, (1984), we again acknowledged the significance of voir dire in the trial of a criminal case. In Hopkinson v. State, Wyo., 632 P.2d 79 ......
-
Jahnke v. State
...WYOMING CONSTITUTION?" The facts surrounding the killing of the Jahnke children's father have been reviewed in the case of Jahnke v. State, Wyo., 682 P.2d 991 (1984). They can be reiterated briefly. Following years of both physical and psychological abuse of the children by the father, matt......
-
Ryan v. State
...obvious possibility that a judge might impose the sentences imposed here. Justice Brown, in a concurring opinion in Jahnke v. State, Wyo., 682 P.2d 991, 1010-1011 (1984), noted that such sentences would be possible under the statute. He stated that the judge in that case "could have sentenc......
-
Oien v. State
...on grounds of relevancy is abuse of discretion and the burden of establishing such abuse lies with the challenger. See Jahnke v. State, 682 P.2d 991, 1005 (Wyo.1984). While that phrase can be fairly slippery, abuse of discretion has as its anchor point the query of "whether the court could ......
-
Christine M. Belew, Killing One's Abuser: Premeditation, Pathology, or Provocation?
...of the abuser for past and future acts and conduct" and "'would amount to a leap into the abyss of anarchy'" (quoting Jahnke v. State, 682 P.2d 991, 997 (Wyo. 1984))). 100 See Stewart, 763 P.2d at 576-79. 101 PAUL H. ROBINSON, WOULD YOU CONVICT? 146-47 (1999). 102 See EVAN STARK, COERCIVE C......
-
Killing One's Abuser: Premeditation, Pathology, or Provocation?
...of the abuser for past and future acts and conduct" and "'would amount to a leap into the abyss of anarchy'" (quoting Jahnke v. State, 682 P.2d 991, 997 (Wyo. 1984))).100. See Stewart, 763 P.2d at 576-79.101. Paul H. Robinson, Would You Convict? 146-47 (1999).102. See Evan Stark, Coercive C......