California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Bright, 12 Cal.4th 652, 49 Cal.Rptr.2d 732, 909 P.2d 1354 (Cal. 1996):
If the majority's holding does mean that there is no constitutional right to jury trial on the issue of premeditation, it produces this anomaly: As to completed murders, premeditation is an element of the crime of first degree murder and therefore subject to the constitutional right of jury trial; as to attempted murders, however, premeditation is merely a penalty consideration and therefore not subject to the constitutional right of jury trial. In this case, for example, had Deputy Kain died of the wounds defendant inflicted, and had the prosecution charged defendant with murder, the issue of premeditation would have been an element of the charged offense of murder in the first degree, and defendant therefore would have had a constitutional right to a jury trial on that issue. (United States v. Gaudin, supra, 515 U.S. 506, ---- [115 S.Ct. 2310, 2317].) Yet because Kain did not die and defendant was charged with attempted premeditated murder (and because the majority concludes that premeditation is a mere penalty consideration in this context), defendant apparently has no constitutional right to a jury trial on the very same issue of premeditation. This incongruity provides yet another reason to reject the majority's construction of the statutory language.
The above passage should not be considered legal advice. Reliable answers to complex legal questions require comprehensive research memos. To learn more visit www.alexi.com.