Silver Spring, MD: Md. man guilty of murder in wife's stabbing death

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 26, 2010; B04

Claude Harrison, 49, was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday for killing his wife last summer in their Silver Spring apartment. He stabbed Lamour A. Harrison, 37, five times while stalking her from room to room, according to prosecutors.

The evidence was so strong that Harrison's attorney, Brian D. Shefferman, was left to argue that Harrison's actions didn't amount to premeditated murder but to a less serious crime. The attack lasted perhaps 20 to 30 seconds.

To establish premeditation, though, prosecutors do not have to show that the defendant engaged in weeks or even minutes of planning. They can argue that the time someone takes to weigh whether to kill need only be a matter of seconds. In cases such as Harrison's, when someone is accused of stabbing or shooting repeatedly, prosecutors will argue that subsequent attacks are themselves a matter of premeditation because the defendant had a chance to stop.

Using a 12-inch knife, Harrison delivered one wound 7 inches deep and another 8 inches deep -- doing so in front of the couple's college-age daughter, Shanoy, who tried to lift her father off her mother.

"What he did was completely wrong. . . . We know that," Shefferman said. "But this was not a premeditated and deliberate act. It was the result of raw emotion and frustration. Once he got control of that knife, he clearly lost control."

Prosecutor Peter Feeney, in his closing argument, described how Harrison had talked in the past about hurting his wife. On the day he killed her, his deliberate actions went well beyond a one-time snap, Feeney said.

He described Claude Harrison's first assault, in a bedroom. He told jurors about what witnesses heard his wife say.

"He forces his way in. 'Why are you following me? What are you going to do?' " Feeney said. "And he plunges the knife into her back."

Harrison then followed his badly wounded wife into the kitchen.

"He's talking to his wife. . . . And she says to him, 'Please, please.' His response: 'Please what?' "