What is the difference between premeditation and intent?

[Lakai]

@Alan_Smithee

Here is a thread in which the OP (an attorney in the case being discussed, I believe) states that “Premeditation can happen in an instant, and only requires a moment’s reflection.” He also gives the classic example of unpremeditated murder in which “you walk in on a spouse mid-coitus with lover,” even though I can’t see how you could commit murder in such a situation without even an instant of thought.

Here is a post from another thread complete with cites to Minnesota state law and a federal court decision. Later in that thread, Cheesesteak asks essentially my question here, and Really Not All That Bright asserts that premeditation and intent are distinct elements, but doesn’t really explain how, given that the instantaneous thought forming the intent to kill seems identical with premeditation as defined in that law. He or she does suggest that that law has been modified by the court so that some time is required, but it’s not clear how much or what the actual distinction is between 1st and 2nd degree murder. And of course, the first thread suggests that some jurisdictions still accept that premeditation can be instantaneous and virtually simultaneous with the act of killing.

The Minnesota case cited in your link has since been clarified. From State v. Moore, 846 N.W.2d 83, 89 (Minn. 2014):

To be guilty of first degree premeditated murder, defendant must have caused the death of Debra Moore with premeditation and with intent to effect her death. Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1). The legislature has defined “premeditation” to mean “to consider, plan or prepare for, or determine to commit, the act referred to prior to its commission.” Minn.Stat. § 609.18. If only intent were proven without premeditation, defendant would be guilty of murder in the second degree. Minn.Stat. § 609.19(1). This court, and many other courts, have struggled to give effect to the distinction between these two degrees of homicide. That distinction is concerned with the time involved and the defendant’s state of mind.3 Premeditation, by definition, requires some amount of time to pass between formation of the intent and the carrying out of the act. To say, as we said in State v. Neumann, 262 N.W.2d 426, 430 (Minn.1978), that premeditation may occur “virtually instantaneously” with the formation of the intent to kill blurs the line between first and second degree murder when it is evident that the legislature intended the line to be sufficiently distinct to justify punishing persons convicted of the different crimes differently. While we have long recognized that premeditation requires no specific period of time for deliberation,4 State v. Gowdy, 262 Minn. 70, 75, 113 N.W.2d 578, 581 (1961), or extensive planning, State v. Richardson, 393 N.W.2d at 664, the state must always prove that, after the defendant formed the intent to kill, some appreciable time passed during which the consideration, planning, preparation or determination required by Minn. Stat. § 609.18 prior to the commission of the act took place.

You can rest assured that you were not the only confused by Minnesota’s distinction between premeditation and intent.