Case Name: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Gregory Edward WHITE, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1975-09-10
Citations: 324 So. 2d 630
Docket Number: No. 46289
Parties: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Gregory Edward WHITE, Respondent.
Judges: ROBERTS, BOYD and OVERTON, JJ-, concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 324
Pages: 630–632

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Gregory Edward WHITE, Respondent.
No. 46289.
Supreme Court of Florida.
Sept. 10, 1975.
Rehearing Denied Jan. 19, 1976.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for petitioner.
David Roth and Larry Klein, Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Johnson & McKeown, West Palm Beach, for respondent.

Opinion:
ENGLAND, Justice.
By writ of certiorari, we are asked to review a decision of the First District Court of Appeal, reported at 299 So.2d 143, which alleges conflicts with other district court decisions. We tentatively agreed that there is direct conflict with Battle v. State, 292 So.2d 594 (2d DCA Fla.1974), and with McCullers v. State, 206 So.2d 30 (4th DCA Fla.), cert. denied, 210.So.2d 868 (Fla.1968), and we have taken the case under consideration on the basis of briefs alone. Our full review persuades us that the conflict is direct, and that we have jurisdiction under Article V, Section 3(b)(3) of the Florida Constitution.
The simple issue before us is whether the crime of aggravated assault includes as one of its elements the victim's well-founded fear that violence is imminent. The district court below said that such a fear must be proved, citing language to that effect in Criminal Standard Jury Instruction No. 2.05 as adopted by this Court in 1970. In contrast to this view, the district courts in Battle and McCullers held that criminal assault, unlike the tort of assault, does not require an awareness by the victim of imminent peril.
At the time of trial in this case, the elements of an "assault" were not expressed in any statute. The elements had been stated by this Court, however, in Motley v. State, 155 Fla. 545, 20 So.2d 798 (1945), where assault was defined as a wrongful action creating a fear of imminent bodily harm coupled with an apparent present ability to inflict injury. This definition has been followed by several district courts of this state, and it was repeated with approval by this Court as recently as 1973.
The State argues for a definition of assault which does not include victim awareness, on the ground that "bushwhackers" and "backstabbers" would escape punishment if they were unsuccessful in their attempt to inflict injury. The Legislature did not intend to allow such acts to go unpunished, however. The general "attempt" statute will reach those situations.
The decision of the First District Court of Appeal was correct and it is affirmed.
ROBERTS, BOYD and OVERTON, JJ-, concur.
ADKINS, C. J., dissents.
On consideration of the Petition for Rehearing filed by petitioner,
It is ordered that said petition is denied.
BOYD, OVERTON, ENGLAND and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.
ADKINS, C. J., dissents with opinion.
ROBERTS, J., dissents and concurs with ADKINS, C. J.
. 784.04, Fla.Stat. (1973), defined aggravated assault as assault with the additional element of a deadly weapon. Section 784.02, Fla.Stat. (1973), did not define any of the elements of the crime of "assault". The Legislature has redefined the crime of assault, effective July 1, 1975, as follows: "An 'assault' is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled witli an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent." Section 784.011(1), Fla.Stat. (Supp.1974).
. See e. g., Munday v. State, 254 So.2d 33 (3d DCA Fla.1971); Bass v. State, 232 So.2d 25 (1st DCA 1970), and Albright v. State, 214 So.2d 887 (2d DCA Fla.1968).
. State v. Wilson, 276 So.2d 45 (Fla.1973).
. The crimes of battery and aggravated battery cover those situations where actual injury is inflicted.
. Section 777.04, Fla.Stat. (Supp.1974). The penalties for attempted assault and assault itself are identical. Sections 777.04(4) (e) and 784.011(2), Fla.Stat. (Supp.1974).
. We disapprove the conflicting Battle and McCullers decisions on this point, as well as the conflicting decision in Nelson v. State, 157 So.2d 96 (3d DCA Fla.1963), cert. denied, 165 So.2d 178 (Fla.1964).