Opinion ID: 2106628
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Duplicitousness in the Robbery Instruction

Text: [24] Armed robbery can be committed either by stealing with force or by stealing with the threat of force. Sec. 943.32 (1) (a), (b), and (2), Stats. Sec. 943.32 (1) (a) and sec. 943.32 (1) (b) are two distinct crimes. Schleiss v. State, 71 Wis.2d 733, 239 N.W.2d 68 (1976). The model jury instructions for armed robbery discuss the crime committed in both ways. Thus as the State concedes, the model instruction for armed robbery is, technically, duplicitous. However, it is impossible for such duplicitousness to be error where, as here, the crime charged is sec. 943.32 (1) (b), Stats., armed robbery by threat of force. Any juror who conceivably convicted the defendant of armed robbery by force would have also convicted the defendant of armed robbery by threat to use force. Only in a case where an accused is charged and tried under subsection (a), armed robbery by force, can the instruction permitting the jury to convict if it merely finds the threat of force be duplicitous in any material way. Because the defendant was charged with armed robbery by threat of force, the armed robbery instruction could not have permitted some jurors to convict him of a crime not charged. By the Court. Judgment affirmed.