Can a jury find a defendant guilty of first degree murder if it found the murder was committed by torture or by lying in wait?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Figueroa, D068143 (Cal. App. 2016):

12. The jury was also instructed that it could find defendant guilty of first degree murder if it found the murder was committed by torture or by lying in wait. ( 189 ["All murder which is perpetrated by means of . . . lying in wait, torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing . . . is murder of the first degree."].) Provocation is irrelevant to these theories. (See People v. Battle (2011) 198 Cal.App.4th 50, 75 ["if the jury found murder by lying in wait, provocation was irrelevant because the murder could not be reduced to second degree murder"]; People v. Seaton (2001) 26 Cal.4th 598, 665 [killing in commission of felonies enumerated in 189 constitutes first degree murder even if killer acted in imperfect self-defense].)

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