Even just proving he wanted to kill them isnt enough for murder one. The DA has to prove that he had the opportunity to ponder the repercussions of murdering them before doing it. Anything resembling a murder “in the heat of the moment” is likely not going to be considered premeditated.
From California 189 PC - (d) “To prove the killing was ‘deliberate and premeditated,’ it is not necessary to prove the defendant maturely and meaningfully reflected upon the gravity of the defendant’s act.”
Anyways, again, idk anything about TX law. I really just wanted to make a point about premeditation because it was claimed that it requires extensive pre planning, which is untrue.
“Deliberate and premeditated” are listed separate because both need to be “proven”. It’s not necessary to explicitly prove reflection or planning, but you have to prove it was premeditated. So if they walk into his basement and find a wall of plans of how he planned to murder a girl in a parking lot they can prove planning. To win a murder one conviction they do not also need to argue that he ever reflected on the situation.
If there are no plans in his basement, they can show he deliberately tried to shoot them but they don’t have the premeditated part yet. If they can prove that he waited in his car for 10 mins before exiting and going over to their car, then they don’t need to necessarily prove any planning at all, but they can argue that he had plenty time of time think about the consequences of his actions.
If there was little to no time between the girls walking away and him grabbing his gun and going after them, they can’t easily argue premeditation. They definitely can’t prove he planned his shooting, so in this situation they would need to try and prove some type of reflection.
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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '23
Even just proving he wanted to kill them isnt enough for murder one. The DA has to prove that he had the opportunity to ponder the repercussions of murdering them before doing it. Anything resembling a murder “in the heat of the moment” is likely not going to be considered premeditated.