Spunaugle v. State
| Decision Date | 03 September 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. F-95-308,F-95-308 |
| Citation | 1997 OK CR 47,946 P.2d 246 |
| Parties | 1997 OK CR 47 Delpha Jo SPUNAUGLE Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Delpha Jo Spunaugle was tried by jury and found guilty of Murder in the First Degree, Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder, and Solicitation to Commit First Degree Murder (21 O.S.1991, §§ 701.7, 421, 701.16) in Oklahoma County District Court Case No. CRF-93-5206. The jury recommended a sentence of death for the murder, life imprisonment for the solicitation, and ten years imprisonment for the conspiracy to commit murder. The trial judge imposed the recommended sentences. We reverse judgment and sentence, and remand for a new trial.
Delpha Jo Spunaugle tried for at least two years to find someone to kill her husband, Dennis. On the evening of August 14, 1993 she asked her friend David Woodward to come over and be with her when Dennis came home from a night of drinking. Spunaugle believed Dennis would not abuse her verbally if Woodward were present, and had invited him over on other occasions for this reason. Dennis Spunaugle came home and after some verbal exchange with his wife, went to bed. Some time later Woodward climbed into the Spunaugle's motor home which was parked on the driveway and went to sleep. Delpha Jo Spunaugle awakened him in the early morning hours of August 15th, announcing, "It's time."
She led Woodward into the bedroom. Dennis was sleeping with his head at the foot of the bed. Woodward hit him with a baseball bat 1, partially severing his ear and knocking him off the bed. A struggle ensued and Woodward stabbed Dennis repeatedly. When Dennis appeared to get the upper hand, Delpha Jo hit him with the bat. As dawn neared and Dennis still was not dead, Delpha Jo got a rope and Woodward coiled it around Dennis' neck. Woodward and Delpha Jo each pulled one end of the rope until Dennis died.
Five days later the maggot infested and partially skeletonized body of Dennis Spunaugle was found by a passing truck driver in a dry creek bed near the intersection of 164th Street and County Line Road in Oklahoma County where Delpha Jo and Woodward had left it. Woodward confessed to the crime and asserted he would not have committed it, but for Delpha Jo's manipulation and his intoxication. Delpha Jo also confessed to her participation in the murder, but asserted she did so under duress. She told the police Woodward was "possessed" during the attack and threatened to harm her or her children if she did not help kill Dennis. She also told them he was a devil worshipper who licked Dennis' blood from his knife, and threatened her by saying his followers would hurt her if she reported the crime. Spunaugle and Woodward were tried jointly and convicted. 2
Spunaugle attempted to raise a duress defense to the charge of first degree malice murder. Duress has never been recognized in Oklahoma as a defense to that crime; in fact, this Court suggested in dicta the defense is barred by common law. Tully v. State, 730 P.2d 1206, 1209-10 (Okl.Cr.1986). Interestingly, the validity of the defense was not challenged by the prosecutor or the Attorney General. We raise the question sua sponte, for if duress is not a valid defense to malice murder, Spunaugle's arguments concerning inconsistent defenses would become moot.
The defense of duress in Oklahoma is a creature of statute. Title 21 O.S.1991, § 152(7), the first of three defining statutes, provides a person who commits a crime under duress is deemed incapable of committing the crime:
All persons are capable of committing crimes, except those belonging to the following classes:
....
7) Persons who committed the act, or make the omission charged, while under involuntary subjection to the power of superiors.
Title 21 O.S.1991, § 155 reinforces the legal basis for the defense, and deems a person who commits a crime under duress fully exonerated of the crime:
The involuntary subjection to the power of a superior which exonerates a person charged with a criminal act or omission from punishment therefor, arises from duress.
Title 21 O.S. Supp.1992, § 156, expanded to recognize people can be put under duress by threats to their spouse or child, completes the definition:
A person is entitled to assert duress as a defense if that person committed a prohibited act or omission because of a reasonable belief that there was imminent danger of death or great bodily harm from another upon oneself, ones (sic) spouse or ones (sic) child.
To determine the extent and limit of this statutory defense, we begin with the language of the statute itself. If the language is self-explanatory, we need go no further. In this case we are greatly aided in this effort by clear and consistent statutory language.
First, as Tully recognized, the Oklahoma legislature did not limit the crimes to which the defense of duress can be asserted. 730 P.2d at 1208. We believe this is a policy choice and not an omission because it is supported by the rest of the defining language and the recent expansion of the defense.
The Oklahoma approach to duress contrasts sharply with the common law which has been hostile to the defense. One nineteenth century writer, J. Stephen, noted, "Compulsion by threats ought in no case whatever be admitted as an excuse for crime." A History of the Criminal Law in England 108 (1883). While the common law does recognize the defense, it limits application of the duress defense considerably by grounding it in the so-called "choice of evils" moral philosophy of justification. Under this philosophy, one is not morally justified to commit a greater harm to avoid a lesser one. Thus, where harm is unavoidable, one may not choose to commit an equal or greater harm to avoid harm himself. J. Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law 422 (2d Ed.1947).
When this theory is applied to malice murder, the defense of duress is precluded, for when threatened by harm, a person "ought rather die himself than escape by the murder of an innocent." 4 W. Blackstone's Commentaries 30. This theory is carried forward in the Model Penal Code. See Model Penal Code and Commentary § 3.02 and commentary at 9-22. States which follow this rationale limit the application of the duress defense to certain crimes. See, e.g. Ky. Rev.Stat. § 508.080; Mo. Rev.Stat. § 563.026.
Justification is but one of two legal theories supporting the defense of duress. The other foundation, wholly separate and distinct from the theory of justification, is the doctrine of excuse. This doctrine is at 367-387; Finkelstein, Duress: A Philosophical Account of the Defense in Law, 37 Ariz. L.Rev. 251-283 (1995).
Under this legal doctrine, a person may be excused for committing a crime, even murder, if "men of ordinary firmness" would have acted in the same way to save their own lives. Model Penal Code § 2.09. The legal theory of excuse focuses on the actor and "represents the legal conclusion that the conduct is wrong, ... but that criminal liability is inappropriate because some characteristics of the actor vitiates society's desire to punish him." Robinson, Criminal Law Defenses: A Systematic Analysis, 83 Colum. L.Rev. 199, 229 (1982). La Fave and Scott acknowledge a majority of the modern codes take this approach, and that a significant number of the modern statutory schemes make the duress defense available "whatever the charge against the defendant." W. LaFave & A. Scott, Criminal Law 437 (2d ed. 1986).
Simply put, if the defense of duress is based on the legal theory of excuse in Oklahoma, it is available to answer a charge of first degree malice murder; if it is based on the legal theory of justification, it is not. To determine which theoretical underpinning supports the defense of duress in Oklahoma, we look once again to the plain language of the defining statutes.
Section 152(7) focuses on the actor, defining the person under duress as not capable of committing a crime. Section 155 focuses on the actor, and exonerates him if he acts under duress. Section 156, amended in 1992, entitles a person to the defense if that person acted as a result of a reasonable belief "there was imminent danger of death or great bodily harm" to himself, his spouse, or his child. All of the defining statutory language focuses on the actor, while none of it focuses on the act, or justification of the act.
In light of this clear and consistent statutory language, we conclude Oklahoma did not adopt the "choice of evils" theory of justification. Rather our defense of duress is based on the legal theory of excuse. Therefore, the Tully discussion of "choice of evils" and justification, while accurate for those states which use justification to support the defense of duress, has no application to the defense in Oklahoma. We find the defense of duress is available in Oklahoma to a defendant charged with the crime of first degree malice murder. 3
Duress is an affirmative defense. The defendant bears the burden to present or elicit sufficient evidence to raise the defense, and if the defendant meets this burden, the burden then shifts to the State to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense is exceptionally well defined by statute, and inherently includes important limits.
The threatened danger of death or great bodily harm must be imminent. 21 O.S. Supp.1992, § 156. The defendant's belief that death or great...
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