Opinion ID: 1209976
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Criminal Negligence Instruction Which was Given to the Jury Lowers the State's Burden of Proof.

Text: Instruction number 49 read: You are instructed that in every crime or public offense there must exist a union, or joint operation, of act and intent, or criminal negligence. Criminal negligence which will make an act a crime is gross negligence. Such negligence amounts to a wanton, flagrant or reckless disregard of consequences, or willful indifference of the safety or rights of others. I concur with Justice Johnson in his analysis of this instruction. He believes that the instruction could have misled the jury into believing it could use criminal negligence to substitute for specific intent. 125 Idaho at 574, 873 P.2d at 828 (Johnson, J., concurring, concurring in the result, and dissenting). If the jury read the instruction in that way, the State's burden of proof was lowered and the State was relieved of its duty to prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt as required by In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1073, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). Reversal is therefore required.