California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Munoz, 157 Cal.App.3d 999, 204 Cal.Rptr. 271 (Cal. App. 1984):
"Since the decision in People v. Sanchez (1864), 24 Cal. 17, 30, it has been repeatedly declared that 'There need be no appreciable space of time between the intention to kill and the act of killing; they may be as instantaneous as successive thoughts of the mind,' but this is not the equivalent of saying that the intention to kill can be formed without being preceded by deliberation and premeditation. It is only a declaration that the act of killing may instantaneously follow the intention once the latter is finally formulated. It does not imply that mature reflection (deliberation and premeditation) need not precede the ultimate formation of the evil intention. By its very language it has reference only to the 'space of time between the intention to kill and the act of killing.' In other words, a murder is of the first degree no matter how quickly the act of killing follows the ultimate formation of the intention if that intention has been reached with deliberation and premeditation. This view of the law is manifest in the Sanchez case by the statement (at p. 30 of 24 Cal.) that 'The intent to kill must be the result of deliberate premeditation; it must be formed upon a pre-existing reflection, and not upon a sudden heat of passion sufficient to preclude the idea of deliberation.' Neither the
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STANIFORTH, Associate Justice, concurring and dissenting.
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