Court Opinion

ID: 9624285
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:56:51.075892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:42.587685
License: Public Domain

BURNETT, Justice:
While I concur in the result reached by the majority, I disagree the enactment of § 16-1-60 “ended the necessity for a case-by-case analysis.” I have reservations about this limitation on judges’ discretion and its impact on pending cases. Although I agree there are no situations where the courts would not treat offenses defined as “violent crimes” under one section as “crimes involving the use of violence” under another *441section, the converse is not necessarily true. Section 16-1-60 encompasses statutory crimes, yet common law crimes may also involve the use of violence against another person. For example, as the majority notes, common law assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (ABHAN) is not included in § 16-1-60’s list of violent crimes. The interpretation of § 16 — 3—20(C)(b)(l) given by the majority precludes use of common law crimes of violence in a death penalty case. The legislature could not have intended for criminals with a history of violent common law crimes to be entitled to a mitigating jury charge that they have “no significant history of prior criminal conviction involving the use of violence against another person.”