Opinion ID: 319775
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: failure to instruct jury regarding diminished capacity.

Text: 102 Acknowledging that air piracy is a general intent crime, United States v. Bohle, supra, 445 F.2d at 60, defendant nevertheless urges that two proffered instructions regarding diminished capacity to formulate specific intent were erroneously refused. The basis for the alleged propriety of the two instructions is the indictment's use of the terms 'knowingly' and 'willingly' in describing defendant's conduct. In effect, defendant argues that the Government was required to prove specific intent not because the statute demands it but because the indictment refers to specific intent. 103 This argument is without merit. The language of the indictment, insofar as it goes beyond alleging the elements of the statute, is mere surplusage. Such surplusage in an indictment need not be proved. United States v. Archer, 455 F.2d 193, 194 (10th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 856, 93 S.Ct. 135, 34 L.Ed.2d 100; Milentz v. United States, 446 F.2d 111, 114 (8th Cir. 1971); Gawne v. United States, 409 F.2d 1399, 1403 (9th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 943, 90 S.Ct. 956, 25 L.Ed.2d 123 (1970). The defendant relies on Ex parte Bain, 121 U.S. 1, 7 S.Ct. 781, 30 L.Ed. 849 (1887), in which the Supreme Court held that an indictment cannot be amended by the trial court after it has been found and presented by a grand jury without resubmission to the grand jury. In Ford v. United States, 273 U.S. 593, 602, 47 S.Ct. 531, 71 L.Ed. 793 (1927), however, the Court expressly stated that the disregarding of surplusage in an indictment is not prohibited by the holding in Ex parte Bain. Since the air piracy statute only requires proof of a general intent, the trial court did not err in refusing instructions relevant to specific intent crimes. 104