California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Quezada, 2d Crim. No. B244800 (Cal. App. 2015):
"A conviction for murder requires the commission of an act that causes death, done with the mental state of malice aforethought (malice). ( 187.)" (People v. Gonzalez (2012) 54 Cal.4th 643, 653.) "The law recognizes two degrees of murder. The degrees are distinguished by the mental state with which the killing is done. . . . A person who kills unlawfully and intentionally is guilty of first degree murder if the intent to kill is formed after premeditation and deliberation. ( 189; [citation].) If the person kills unlawfully and intentionally but the intent to kill is not formed after premeditation and deliberation, the murder is of the second degree. [Citation.]" (Ibid., fn. omitted.)
"'Premeditation and deliberation can occur in a brief interval. "The test is not time, but reflection. 'Thoughts may follow each other with great rapidity and cold, calculated judgment may be arrived at quickly.'"' [Citation.] Premeditation can be established in the context of a gang shooting even though the time between the sighting of the victim and the actual shooting is very brief. [Citation.] 'A studied hatred and enmity, including a preplanned, purposeful resolve to shoot anyone in a certain neighborhood wearing a certain color, evidences the most cold-blooded, most calculated, most culpable, kind of premeditation and deliberation.' [Citation.]" (People v. Sanchez (2001) 26 Cal.4th 834, 849.) In reviewing the sufficiency of a finding of premeditation and deliberation, courts often consider evidence of the defendant's planning, motive, and method, although these factors "need not be present in some special combination or afforded special weight, nor are they exhaustive." (People v. Booker (2011) 51 Cal.4th 141, 173.)
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