People V Anderson

JORGE PASCUAL ESCODA

CRIMINAL LAW - 02/11/2016 - PEOPLE V ANDERSON

PROFESSOR MATTHEW PAULEY

1. FACTS

The defendant Mr. Anderson was indicted for murder of Victoria Hammond. Mr. Anderson had been living eight months with Mrs. Hammond and her three children. The morning of the murder he did not go to work and he spend the day with one of the children, Victoria who was 10 years old, and drinking alcohol. When Kenneth, Victoria’s 13 year old brother, arrived at home he found the front door locked. He also listened some noises coming from upstairs, and when he went upstairs he found the backdoor screen locked. Then the kitchen door was locked too, so he knocked the door and Mr. Anderson opened the door. Kenneth found some blood on the kitchen’s floor so he asked Anderson about it and he said he had cut himself. When Mrs. Hammond returned, noticed blood on the living room coach, so she asked Anderson, and he said that Kenneth had cut himself. When Kenneth returned, his mother realized that he did not cut himself and asked again Anderson. He said that Victoria had cut himself and that she was at a friend’s house for dinner. Mrs. Hammond asked Kenneth to go and get Victoria from the house, and when Kenneth went back to his room to get the jacket, he looked at Victoria’s room and he found her nude and body under some boxes and some blankets on the floor.

II. ISSUE

1. Was the evidence sufficient to support the verdict of first degree murder?

III. HOLDING

1. No.

IV. REASONING

Even though the jury found the defendant guilty of first degree murder, found that he was sane, and fixed the penalty at death, the Supreme Court of California conclude that the evidence they had was insufficient to support a verdict of first degree murder. Even though Anderson stabbed over 60 times Victoria, which is an evidence of malice, to be guilty of first degree murder “the intent to kill must be formed upon a pre-existing reflection, and have been the subject of actual deliberation or forethought.” The court divided evidences of premeditation in three categories: the first one are the facts about how and what did Anderson prior the murder and that could show some evidence of premeditation or intention to kill Victoria; the second, facts about the conduct and the relationship of Anderson with Victoria prior to the killing; finally, the facts about the nature of the killing that could show some intention to kill her before he made it.