State v. Ferguson, 75407
Court | United States State Supreme Court of Missouri |
Citation | 887 S.W.2d 585 |
Docket Number | No. 75407,75407 |
Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jeffrey R. FERGUSON, Appellant. |
Decision Date | 22 November 1994 |
Melinda K. Pendergraph, Office of the State Public Defender, Columbia, for appellant.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Breck K. Burgess, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
A jury convicted Jeffrey Ferguson of first degree murder for his complicity in the death of Kelli Hall. The trial court, abiding the jury's recommendation, imposed the death sentence. Ferguson filed a motion for postconviction relief under Rule 29.15, which was heard and overruled. This Court has jurisdiction of the appeal. Mo. Const. art. V, § 3. The conviction is reversed and remanded for a new trial.
Ferguson contends that the trial court committed reversible error in submitting a verdict director allowing the jury to find him guilty without finding that he deliberated as required under § 565.020, RSMo 1986, the first degree murder statute. He explains that by charging the element of deliberation in the alternative--to either "defendant or [codefendant] Kenneth Ousley"--the jury was not required to find that defendant, himself, deliberated. The verdict director, Instruction No. 9, was submitted to the jury as follows:
If you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
then you are instructed that the offense of murder in the first degree has occurred, and if you further find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
Fourth, that with the purpose of promoting or furthering the commission of that offense of murder in the first degree, the defendant acted together with or aided Kenneth Ousley in committing that offense,
then you will find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.
However, unless you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt each and all of these propositions, you must find the defendant not guilty of murder in the first degree.
Ferguson specifically objected to this instruction "as being an incorrect statement of the law ... and for charging repeatedly throughout the body of the instruction in the alternative...." The trial court overruled the objection, but Ferguson neglected to raise the point in his motion for new trial. Ferguson now requests plain error review as both he and the State are under the impression that the point was not properly preserved. Under Rule 28.03, however, plain error review is not required. The rule states that "specific objections to given or refused instructions and verdict forms shall be required in motions for new trial unless made on the record at the time of trial." Because Ferguson made a specific objection on the record at trial, it was not necessary to raise the point in his motion for new trial, and the issue was adequately preserved.
On the merits, Ferguson's objection is well taken. Under State v. Ervin, 835 S.W.2d 905, 923 (Mo. banc 1992), and State v. O'Brien, 857 S.W.2d 212, 217 (Mo. banc 1993), the verdict directing instruction for first degree murder must ascribe the element of deliberation to the defendant specifically, even though the charge is premised on accessory liability. Although the conduct of a defendant may be imputed to a codefendant, the element of deliberation may not. O'Brien, 857 S.W.2d at 218. The rationale for this rule, though not expressly stated in Ervin or O'Brien, is that the failure to ascribe deliberation to the defendant relieves the State of its burden of proving the requisite mental state of the offense. An instruction that relieves this burden violates due process and constitutes error. State v. Erwin, 848 S.W.2d 476, 484 (Mo. banc 1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 826, 114 S.Ct. 88, 126 L.Ed.2d 56 (1993). In this case, paragraph third of Instruction No. 9 charges the element of deliberation alternatively to the "defendant or Kenneth Ousley" (emphasis added). Couching the instruction in the disjunctive by using "or" rather than "and" allows the jurors to find the element of...
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