Opinion ID: 1429797
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the instruction on robbery

Text: The district judge, when instructing the jury on the crime of robbery, followed the statutory definition of robbery as set forth in NRS 200.380. [1] The court refused, over appellant's objection, to instruct the jury that the defendant had to take the property with a specific intent to deprive the victim permanently of his property. Ever since State v. Sala, 63 Nev. 270, 169 P.2d 524 (1946), we have held that robbery is a specific intent crime. [2] Since the trial in the instant case, we have reaffirmed that ruling in Turner v. State, 96 Nev. 164, 605 P.2d 1140 (1980). In Turner, we reversed a felony murder conviction on the grounds that the jury had not been instructed concerning every element of robbery, which was the underlying felony. The missing instruction, on which reversal was predicated, related to the requirement that the defendant have the specific intent to deprive the victim permanently of his property. The linchpin of Turner's holding is this court's decision in Sala, which stated that specific intent to deprive the victim permanently of the property taken was an essential element of the crime of robbery, 63 Nev. at 288-289, 169 P.2d at 533. Sala, however, made no reference to the governing statutory language or to any other Nevada authority, but relied on the general common law rule citing 46 Am.Jur. § 10. We are convinced that this statement in Sala, whether dictum or not, was error and it is overruled. As a result, so is Turner. Robbery, a felony at common law, requires the intent to steal or take property from the person or presence of another by the use of threats or violence. [3] The use of threats or violence and the presence of the victim distinguish robbery from the lesser included offense of larceny. At common law a traditional requirement of the crime of robbery was a specific intent to deprive the victim permanently of his property. Specific intent may be defined as an intent to steal which is actually a part of the actor's thought processes, as contrasted to the general intent which may be inferred from the voluntary commission of the actus reus. [4] Where, however, the Legislature in defining the crime of robbery speaks of wrongful or unlawful taking as our Nevada statute provides, it has been held that the statutory definition is more limited than the common law definition and no intent is necessary except the intention of doing the act denounced by the statute. See Traxler v. State, 96 Okl.Cr. 231, 251 P.2d 815 (1952). [5] Traxler, supra, construed a statute defining robbery as the wrongful taking of personal property ... by means of force or violence. 251 P.2d at 827. The statute previously had prohibited a felonious taking instead of a wrongful taking. The court held that although the word felonious incorporated all the common law elements of robbery, including specific intent, the words wrongful taking did not; all that was requried under the statute was a taking by means of force or violence. We interpret the words unlawful taking in NRS 200.380 in the same manner as the Oklahoma court interpreted the words wrongful taking. [6] In People v. Banks, supra , the Illinois Supreme Court has recently decided that specific intent to deprive a victim permanently of his property is not an element of the crime of robbery as defined in the Illinois Criminal Code. [7] The supreme court's analysis in Banks of robbery as a general intent offense led it to reverse its earlier decision in People v. White, 67 Ill.2d 107, 8 Ill.Dec. 99, 365 N.E.2d 337 (1977), which it felt misconstrued the intention of the Legislature in drafting the robbery statute. The Illinois court in Banks said at 27 Ill.Dec. p. 198, 388 N.E. p. 1247: ... what is essential to the offense of robbery .. .: depriving a person, in his or her presence, of property, through force or intimidation. As a matter of policy, we do not think the duration of the deprivation is pertinent nor intended to be so by the legislature. (Citations omitted.) The various definitions of `deprivation' or `deprive' emphasize this; for example, Webster's Third New International Dictionary 606 (1971) defines `deprive' as `to take away: remove, destroy; to take something away from: divest, bereave; ... to keep from the possession, enjoyment, or use of something.' Black's Law Dictionary 529 (rev. 4th ed. 1968) defines `deprive' as `[t]o take ... a taking altogether, a seizure, a direct appropriation, dispossession of the owner.... It connotes want of consent.' What is relevant then is the substantial interference, temporary or permanent, with property rights without consent. And what is intended by the legislature is `to prevent the use of force and threats against persons as a means of inducing them to part with their property. The intent to steal may include the intent to permanently deprive but is not limited to it and extends to the taking away, stealing, or even preventing the owner from his or her continued and free enjoyment of his property.' (M. Bassiouni, Criminal Law 336-37 (1978)). We conclude, therefore, that NRS 200.380 defines robbery as a general intent crime which is meant to include all violent takings from the person or presence of another. The district judge did not err in refusing to give the requested specific intent instruction.