Court Opinion

ID: 9769421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:50:10.671527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:03.234537
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I cannot compel myself to remain silent in view of the majority opinion. I could not sleep well if I refrained from registering this dissent. My brothers have again confounded me by their reasoning in affirming this case. Apparently the prosecuting attorney wanted to see how far he could go with a literal interpretation of the language in our new Criminal Code. It would be funny if we were not dealing with the liberty of another human being. Robbery is defined in Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-2103 (1) (Repl. 1977): A person commits robbery if with the purpose of committing a theft or resisting apprehension immediately thereafter, he employs or threatens to immediately employ physical force upon another. Appellant had placed some meat from a shelf in a grocery store in a sack while he was in the back of the store. The officers were perched upon their seat behind one-way mirrors and observed what appeared to be a theft in the making. Before appellant attempted to leave the store the officer rushed him and he started to flee. Thereupon the officer drew his service revolver and ordered appellant to stop as he obviously did. While the officer was holding his revolver in one hand he was attempting to handcuff the appellant with the other. After clamping his left hand into the cuffs he attempted to put the other one on while appellant was resisting the force being used upon him. About this time the revolver discharged and both men became frightened and settled down. There is no indication appellant exerted any force whatsoever except to try to keep from being handcuffed. He made no threats to employ physical force upon anyone so far as the record reveals. Obviously the main force used was by the officer while he was trying to handcuff appellant to a wire on a baler machine. Naturally, there was physical force when appellant pulled back. The two may have even scuffled but the most that can be said is that appellant was resisting arrest. The officer stated: “He was continually trying to break and get away.” Appellant had no weapon other than the meat he had placed in a sack. He inflicted no injury upon the officer. Nevertheless, he was charged, convicted and sentenced to five years in the Department of Correction for “robbery.” I do not believe the General Assembly intended that every supposedly attempted theft would be considered a robbery. If they did, the comments following § 41-2103 and common sense no longer have any application to the law. Most any shoplifting or theft or resisting arrest case is now classified as a robbery if this opinion stands. There was only one entrance and exit from this Safeway Store on Asher Avenue. The appellant would have to have attempted to walk past the checkout counters with his bag of groceries before he could reasonably have been charged with attempted theft. Witnesses for appellant contended he was there for the purpose of purchasing items and the facts do not dispute this, except it would be unusual to put the meat in a sack instead of a cart. I am sure he probably intended to try to steal the items but he was still in the preparation and planning stages inside the store when he was handcuffed and arrested. The store employee testified the meat was still in the cart. I don’t know whether it was in a sack or a cart but it was still inside the store and it never left the store. Appellant never attempted to leave the store without paying for the meat or whatever it was. Giving the evidence its highest probative value, appellant possibly committed the offense of resisting arrest pursuant to Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-2803 (Repl. 1977). Unless this statute was intended to apply in cases like this, it may as well never have been enacted. In practical application the majority view here would allow a robbery conviction for a person who took a 15-cent item and ran and, while running, accidentally bumped into someone in a crowd of people. I believe in the strict enforcement of our penal statutes but I do not believe in applying them to abstract or ridiculous situations like this. It is no wonder our penal institutions are overflowing and that we have so much criticism of the Department of Corrections for releasing inmates early. I hope appellant is one of those who obtains an early release. Our criminal justice system should be designed for the purpose of an equal application of the laws and to do justice. This Court is the last resort for those who feel they have not received justice in the lower courts, and if we fail them then they have nowhere else to turn. I submit that when we render an opinion affirming a conviction like this we have failed to look out for individual rights and the image and structure of our “Criminal Justice System.” I am authorized to state that Hickman, J., joins me in this dissent.