Court Opinion

ID: 9645137
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:13:51.33574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:23.906481
License: Public Domain

Arthur H. Healey, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part.) I concur in the result reached by the court on the crime of robbery in the first degree. I do not, however, agree with that portion of the majority opinion which concludes that the erroneous instruction of the court, which placed the burden on the state to prove that the defendant was not a person excepted from the prohibition of General Statutes § 29-35, was harmful to the defendant and constituted reversible error. It has always been the law of this state that an erroneous instruction that has, nevertheless, not affected the result is not reversible error. See State v. Ruth, 181 Conn. 187, 197, 435 A.2d 3 (1980); State v. McClain, 171 Conn. 293, 300, 370 A.2d 928 (1976); State v. Tropiano, 158 Conn. 412, 427, 262 A.2d 147, cert. denied, 398 U.S. 949, 90 S. Ct. 1866, 26 L. Ed. 2d 288 (1969).
In this case it is clear that the error could not possibly have affected the verdict. The court did improperly instruct the jury that an essential element of the offense defined in General Statutes § 29-35 was that the defendant was not, at the time *406the offense was committed, a person excepted from the prohibition of General Statutes § 29-35 and that the state had the burden of proof on this element. Because it is concluded, and properly so, that the state never had the burden of proving that the defendant was not within the category of persons excepted from the statute, it is of no consequence that the jury erroneously believed that the state had proven the non-applicability of the exception beyond a reasonable doubt. This instruction was unnecessary to the charge. We have held that where the court, in its instructions to the jury, erroneously charges on a matter which is not necessary to sustaining the verdict, that error is harmless. See Ramonas v. Zucker, 163 Conn. 142, 148, 302 A.2d 242 (1972). See also State v. Roy, 173 Conn. 35, 42-44, 376 A.2d 391 (1977).
Here, it is undisputed that the evidence was sufficient to prove each essential element of the offense of carrying a pistol or revolver in violation of General Statutes § 29-35. No claim of error is directed to any other portion of the instructions on this offense. I, therefore, believe that the erroneous and extraneous portion of the instructions given on this offense could not possibly have affected the result and was, as a consequence, harmless.
I would find no error.