Opinion ID: 1561098
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether Brooks's amended indictment was fatally defective.

Text: ¶ 13. As in this case, the defendant in Joshua was indicted for aggravated assault upon a police officer. Joshua, 445 So.2d at 222. The indictment in that case tracked the language of the aggravated-assault statute. See Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-7 (Rev.2006). With respect to the elements of the crime of aggravated assault, the statute remains unchanged from the time Joshua was decided. [6] It provides, in pertinent part: (2) A person is guilty of aggravated assault if he (a) attempts to cause serious bodily injury to another, or causes such injury purposely, knowingly or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life; or (b) attempts to cause or purposely or knowingly causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm. ... Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-7(2) (Rev.2006). ¶ 14. As in the present case, Joshua challenged the indictment against him for failing to allege any overt acts committed in furtherance of the alleged attempted aggravated assault. The Joshua Court decided that the indictment was defective for failing to set out an overt act, as required for the crime of attempt. Joshua, 445 So.2d at 222-23. In reaching this conclusion, the Court relied primarily upon the case of Bucklew v. State, 206 So.2d 200 (Miss.1968), holding that [o]ur statutory law requires proof of an overt act in order to sustain a conviction of an attempt to commit a crime. Joshua, 445 So.2d at 222 (citing Bucklew, 206 So.2d at 202). ¶ 15. Initially, the Joshua Court correctly recited the holding of Bucklew. Joshua, 445 So.2d at 222. At this point, however, the Joshua Court apparently conflated the Bucklew decision with the general requirement that an accused person has a constitutional right to be informed of the nature and material elements of the accusation filed against him. Id. (holding that the indictment [for aggravated assault] was substantially defective in that it did not set out any alleged overt act whatsoever regarding appellant's attempt to cause bodily harm to the patrolman.). In so doing, the Joshua decision read far more into the Bucklew holding than was contained therein. ¶ 16. In Bucklew, the defendant was indicted for violation of then-Section 2122 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, embezzlement of public accounts by a state, county or municipal officer. Bucklew, 206 So.2d at 201. That statute made either actual embezzlement or attempted embezzlement a criminal act. Miss.Code Ann. § 2122, Code of 1942, Recompiled (1956). The Court found that, to prove attempted embezzlement, the State would have to put on proof of an overt act. However, nowhere in the Bucklew opinion does there appear a requirement that an overt act be set forth in the criminal indictment. The Bucklew Court was commenting on the proof required for the crime set out in the indictment, and nothing more. Bucklew, 206 So.2d at 202-204. ¶ 17. Therefore, when the Joshua Court held, in essence, that the separate elements of attempt must be set out in a criminal indictment for aggravated assault, it erred in its reading of Bucklew. See Joshua, 445 So.2d at 222-23; Bucklew, 206 So.2d at 202. ¶ 18. An indictment is required to set out the elements of the crime charged. Where the statute under which the defendant is charged fully and clearly defines the offense and the indictment contains the statutory language, that burden is met. Jackson v. State, 420 So.2d 1045, 1046 (Miss.1982). To determine this, we examine the statute to ascertain if the language is specific enough to give notice of the act made unlawful, and exclusive enough to prevent its application to any other acts other than those made unlawful. Id. at 1047. ¶ 19. In Jackson, we examined Mississippi Code Section 97-17-9, which makes any of four different acts in the alternative punishable as fourth-degree arson. Jackson, 420 So.2d at 1046. Two of those alternatives include attempts. Id. at 1047. The Jackson defendant also argued the indictment against him was defective for failing to charge an overt act where the charge included attempt. We pointed out that Jackson was not charged with attempt under the general attempt statute, but was charged with fourth-degree arson. Id. at 1048. Thus, any requirements for indictments under that separate statute had no application to indictments under the general attempt statute. Id. ¶ 20. We further noted that the fourth-degree arson statute clearly made an attempt a violation of the law if done willfully and maliciously; the statute plainly and fully informed appellant of the nature and the causes of the charges against him. Id. (citing Miss.Code Ann. § 97-17-5 (Rev. 2006)). ¶ 21. Similarly, in McCullum v. State, 487 So.2d 1335 (Miss.1986), the defendant was tried and convicted of welfare fraud for attempting to fraudulently receive an unauthorized payment of food stamps, under Mississippi Code Section 97-19-71. See id. at 1337; Miss.Code Ann. § 97-19-71 (Rev.2008). Specifically, that statute provides that, in addition to actually acquiring a food stamp by fraud, a person is guilty of welfare fraud for attempting through fraud to acquire a food stamp. Id. (emphasis added). ¶ 22. On appeal, McCullum argued that, while she had been indicted for attempted welfare fraud, she had been convicted of the completed offense. Id. at 1338. In affirming her conviction, this Court pointed out that [w]here the principal offense by statute is defined to include an attempt, an indictment for the principal offense is in no way defective which employs the word `attempt.' Id. ¶ 23. Here, Brooks was indicted for aggravated assault under Mississippi Code Section 97-3-7, which sets out the actions constituting that crime. One action constituting aggravated assault is an attempt to cause bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-7 (Rev.2006) (emphasis added). Since Brooks was not indicted under the general attempt statute, it was unnecessary to set out the elements of that separate crime. ¶ 24. The statute which is at issue here, the aggravated-assault statute, clearly and fully informs the reader that causing or attempting to cause bodily injury to another, either with a deadly weapon or by some other means likely to produce death or serious injury, will constitute the crime of aggravated assault. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-7 (Rev.2006) (emphasis added). Thus, even though a person is guilty of aggravated assault if he or she attempts to commit the crime, there is no requirement that the elements of attempt under the general attempt statute, Mississippi Code Section 97-1-7, must be included in an indictment for aggravated assault. ¶ 25. Therefore, Joshua v. State should be overruled, and we expressly do so now. The decision of the Court of Appeals that Brooks's amended indictment was fatally defective is reversed, and the finding of the trial court with respect to this issue is reinstated and affirmed.