Court Opinion

ID: 9698158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:43:43.980816+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:38.962424
License: Public Domain

*474R. M. Maher, J.
(concurring). I write separately to address an issue my Brother Gillis does not. I agree that the jury instruction as to "sexual act” is distinguishable from the statutory definition of sexual contact and that the instruction was not confusing. But I cannot ignore the fact that the instruction given by the trial court adds an element to the crime of first-degree criminal sexual conduct not expressly contained in the statute.
The statute does not require, as the instruction does, that the act must have had as its purpose the arousing, stimulating, or gratifying of the sexual emotions or that it must have been done with some other sexually improper intent or purpose.
Though the instruction added an element to the crime charged, the prosecution proffered sufficient evidence to prove it. Complainant testified that after defendant had inserted his finger to extract her tampon (the sexual penetration here), he commenced masturbation. From such an action a jury could reasonably infer the element of sexual arousal which the trial court added to the offense by use of the instruction. In another situation, perhaps, the same type of sexual penetration would not be accompanied by sexual arousal, but the evidence in this case supports a finding that defendant was aroused.
The jury instruction was apparently devised to delineate the term sexual in "sexual penetration” as defined in MCLA 750.520a(h); MSA 28.788(l)(h), so that what was viewed as a problem of over-breadth could be eliminated. It is questionable whether the statute is overbroad. In any case, I am doubtful that an overbroad statute can or should be cured by a jury instruction. In this case, however, since there was sufficient evidence to prove the element added by the instruction, defendant was not prejudiced by its use.
*475Affirmed.
D. C. Riley P. J., concurs with R. M. Maher, J.