State v. Lehr

In State v. Lehr, 227 Ariz. 140,53-59, 254 P.3d 379, 391 (2011), the Arizona Supreme Court considered whether the last sentence was authorized in a case in which victims were killed by blunt force trauma to the head and bloody rocks were found beside the bodies. 227 Ariz. 140,53-59, 254 P.3d at 391. The defendant argued the instruction, coupled with the prosecutor's closing argument that defendant could have formed the necessary intent as he picked up the rock, allowed the jury to convict him without proof of actual reflection. The court concluded that the instruction was not error, observing that the state did not rely on the passage of time alone. Id.57-58. Lehr appears to deal with a potentially short time frame in deciding to pick up a rock and use it as a weapon, Lehr, 227 Ariz. 140,58, 254 P.3d at 391,