Court Opinion

ID: 9476315
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:52:37.211121+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:14.545395
License: Public Domain

BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the court’s opinion because it is in accord with binding Supreme Court prece*1459dent. I recognize that I am bound by that precedent which upholds the constitutional validity of the death penalty. If I were free to decide the issue, I would agree with Justice Brennan’s view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. See Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 227, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2971, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting), and at 231, 96 S.Ct. at 2973 (Marshall, J., dissenting).
I do differ with the rationale of the majority, however, concerning the claim of right defense and the failure to give a theft instruction. Despite dictum in State v. Flores, 140 Ariz. 469, 682 P.2d 1136, 1140 (App.1984), I agree with the district court that the 1978 amendments to Arizona’s criminal statutes eliminate a claim of right defense to the crime of robbery under the facts of this case.
“Robbery” is defined as:
A person commits robbery if in the course of taking any property of another from his person or immediate presence and against his will, such person threatens or uses force against any person with intent either to coerce surrender of property or to prevent resistance to such person taking or retaining property.
Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 13-1902 (1978).
“Property of another” is defined as:
“Property of another” means property in which any person other than the defendant has an interest which the defendant is not privileged to infringe, including property in which the defendant also has an interest, ...
Ariz.Rev.Stet.Ann. § 13-1801(6) (1978).
Under these definitions it is no defense that Woratzeck may have claimed a right to money allegedly owed by Leslie. Clearly Leslie had an interest in the money with which Woratzeck was not privileged to interfere, so that the forceful taking came within the definition of robbery.
Counsel was not entitled to a claim of right instruction even if it were requested. No prejudice resulted from the failure to make the request. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2068, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
I also differ from the majority’s view concerning the failure to give a theft instruction. Woratzeck argues that the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury concerning theft, contending that it is a lesser included offense of robbery. If Woratzeck were entitled to a theft instruction he was entitled to a claim of right instruction, which arguably remains applicable to that offense. I find, however, that there is no evidence justifying a theft instruction.
It was undisputed that Leslie was killed, and the only logical inference is that force was used in the course of depriving her of money. It is not necessary to instruct on a lesser offense when the evidence does not support the giving of such an instruction. Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 102 S.Ct. 2049, 72 L.Ed.2d 367 (1982).