United States v. Shaw
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
701 F.2d 367 (1983)
Ronald Shaw (defendant) was charged with murdering a child, Terrell Johnson, who was shot while riding in a car; Shaw claimed the shooting was an accidental discharge while deer hunting at one location, but the surviving passengers were certain the shooting occurred at a different rest area near the site of an earlier accident, and other witnesses placed a truck like Shaw's parked at that second location on multiple nights, including the night of the shooting, with signs of a shooter lying in wait and too few bullets to support Shaw's hunting story. The jury convicted Shaw of first-degree murder, and he appealed, arguing the government failed to prove premeditation.
Whether circumstantial evidence including conflicting location testimony, prior sightings of the defendant's vehicle at the alleged shooting site, and physical evidence contradicting the defendant's account is sufficient to establish the premeditation required for first-degree murder.