484
Blackmun, J., dissenting
priately, all murders.12 All these killings occurred with "feelings" of one kind or another. All were described as cold-blooded. The majority's assertion that the Idaho construction narrows the class of capital defendants because it rules out those who "kill with anger, jealousy, revenge, or a variety of other emotions" clearly is erroneous, because in ordinary usage the nebulous description "cold-blooded" simply is not limited to defendants who kill without emotion.
In legal usage, the metaphor "cold blood" does have a specific meaning. "Cold blood" is used "to designate a willful, deliberate, and premeditated homicide." Black's Law Dictionary 260 (6th ed. 1990). As such, the term is used to differentiate between first- and second-degree murders.13 For
example, in United States v. Frady, 456 U. S. 152 (1982), Jus-12 See Longenecker, Penalizing Convicts, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 4, 1993, p. 28 (letter) ("[L]egislation to expand the death penalty to include all convicted murderers is long needed. . . . [I]f an individual commits cold-blooded murder he should be removed from our society").
13 The line between the "ordinary" and the "legal" meaning of cold-blooded, however, is not always obvious. On the one hand, judges sometimes casually use the phrase in a variety of senses. In those circumstances, contrary to the majority's assumptions, the term regularly is applied to crimes committed "with anger, jealousy, revenge, or a variety of other emotions." See, e. g., McWilliams v. Estelle, 378 F. Supp. 1380, 1383 (SD Tex. 1974) ("It was the theory of the prosecution that the store owner refused to serve petitioner, that he became angry, went to his hotel room, returned with a pistol, and shot the owner in cold blood"), appeal dism'd, 507 F. 2d 1278 (CA5 1975); People v. Sullivan, 183 Ill. App. 3d 175, 180, 538 N. E. 2d 1376, 1380 (1989) (the defendant "exhibited repeatedly a very jealous, violent nature. . . . The trial court concluded that if the situation were to arise again, defendant in all probability would kill in cold blood again"); People v. Yates, 65 Ill. App. 3d 319, 325, 382 N. E. 2d 505, 510 (1978) ("This record reveals a concerted, deliberate attack by Shirley and Emma Yates against their victim, motivated . . . by cold-blooded revenge"). On the other hand, in ordinary parlance the term "cold-blooded" sometimes is used to mean "premeditated." See, e. g., Reward Offered in Slaying of 2 Women in Shadow Park, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 21, 1993, p. J2 (quoting mayor's statement: " 'This was one of those in-cold-blood killings, not just a drive-by or random shooting. It was premeditated' ").
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