Court Opinion

ID: 9792716
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:35:00.502222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:44.768554
License: Public Domain

MARTONE, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent for the reasons set out in detail in my dissenting opinion in State v. Johnson, 173 Ariz. 274, 277, 842 P.2d 1287, 1290 (1992). I would not reverse this case on the reasonable doubt instruction issue.1 Nor do I believe the defendant preserved the issue. The general request to give this instruction was not enough. Rule 21.3(c), Ariz.R.Crim.P., states that a party must not only object to the failure to give an instruction, but must state “distinctly the matter to which he objects and grounds of his objection.” E.g., State v. Schurz, 176 Ariz. 46, 154, 859 P.2d 156, 164 (1993) (“A general objection to the failure to give an instruction does not preserve the point.”). Thus, this is a fundamental error case, and for the reasons stated in Johnson, there is no fundamental error here. Even if the error were preserved, I believe it to be harmless, again, for the reasons stated in my dissent in Johnson.

. The issue of the exclusion of the defense investigator from the courtroom, in violation of Rule 9.3(d), Ariz.R.Crim.P., is quite another matter which, inexplicably, the court fails to reach.