Opinion ID: 1306773
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Verdicts for lesser included offense.

Text: The defendant argues that the trial court erred in failing to submit verdicts which would have permitted the jury to find the defendant guilty of the lesser included crime of unarmed robbery. The defendant contends that in every case where armed robbery is charged, the lesser included crime of unarmed robbery must be submitted. We consider this argument to be wholly without merit. From the record, it is abundantly clear that the defendant was armed with a gun. This court has held that it need not be shown that a gun was loaded or that it was a lethal weapon. Boyles v. State (1970), 46 Wis. 2d 473, 175 N. W. 2d 277; Claybrooks v. State, supra . The law in this state regarding the submission of verdicts covering lesser included offenses was recently reviewed in State v. Melvin (1970), 49 Wis. 2d 246, 252, 253, 181 N. W. 2d 490: . . . It has been said frequently that to justify the submission for conviction of a lesser offense included in a greater crime there must be some reasonable ground in the evidence for a conviction of the lesser offense and an acquittal of the greater offense. Commodore v. State (1967), 33 Wis. 2d 373, 147 N. W. 2d 283; Devroy v. State (1942), 239 Wis. 466, 1 N. W. 2d 875; State v. Stortecky (1956), 273 Wis. 362, 369, 77 N. W. 2d 721, and cases therein cited. . . . In Zenou v. State (1958), 4 Wis. 2d 655, 668, 91 N. W. 2d 208, this court stated that if the evidence in one reasonable view would suffice to prove the guilt of the higher degree of crime beyond a reasonable doubt and if under a different but reasonable view the evidence would be sufficient to prove the guilt of the lower degree of crime beyond a reasonable doubt and also leave a reasonable doubt as to some element included in the higher degree but not in the lesser, the court could submit both degrees. . . . The early cases point out and emphasize and we must stress again, because the question keeps recurring, that a determination of whether an instruction on a lesser included crime should be given to a jury is not solved by merely determining the crime charged includes the lesser offense because juries are not to be given the discretion or freedom to pick and choose what offense the accused should be found guilty of. Weisenbach v. State (1909), 138 Wis. 152, 119 N. W. 843. The evidence must throw doubt upon the greater offense. Juries cannot rightly convict of the lesser offense merely from sympathy or for the purpose of reaching an agreement. They are bound by the evidence and should be limited to those included crimes which a reasonable view of the evidence will sustain and does not convince beyond a reasonable doubt the additional element of the greater crime existed. In the present case there was no reasonable ground in the evidence for acquittal of the greater offense of armed robbery and conviction of the lesser offense of unarmed robbery. By the Court. Judgment affirmed.