Court Opinion

ID: 9574771
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:07:58.813846+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:36.367807
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J., Concurring.
We granted review to clarify the nature of the mental component of the unlawful-attempt element of assault. This step became necessary because a minor dictum in People v. Rocha (1971) 3 Cal.3d 893 [92 Cal.Rptr. 172, 479 P.2d 372] (Rocha) has led to some confusion in the law. I welcome the majority’s elimination of the confusion created by that dictum.
The majority conclude that to prove assault “The evidence must . . . demonstrate that the defendant willfully or purposefully attempted a ‘violent injury’ or ‘the least touching,’ i.e., ‘any wrongfiil act committed by means of physical force against the person of another.’ [Citation.]” (Maj. opn., ante, pp. 214-215.) The majority are correct.
*223Penal Code section 240 (all statutory references are to this code) defines assault as “an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.” The statute does not explicitly specify the mental state required for this crime. It does explain that assault requires: (1) an act, consisting of an unlawful attempt to injure another, and (2) the current physical ability to commit the injury. Clearly the first element, the act, has an integral mental component: if the actor is unconscious of his or her act, no crime is committed. (§ 26, subd. Four.)1
Section 240 describes an “attempt” to “commit” an injury. In People v. Carmen (1951) 36 Cal.2d 768, 775 [228 P.2d 281] (Carmen), disapproved on another point in People v. Flannel (1979) 25 Cal.3d 668, 684, footnote 12 [160 Cal.Rptr. 84, 603 P.2d 1], we noted that “One could not very well ‘attempt’ or try to ‘commit’ an injury on the person of another if he had no intent to cause any injury to such other person.”
As the majority note (maj. opn., ante, pp. 217-218 & fn. 8), Carmen was correct. I agree.
The majority’s conclusion is strongly buttressed by the legislative history of the assault statute. The code commissioners’ note to section 240 provides in relevant part (and with all italics in the original): “Intent to Strike.—An assault has also been said to be an intentional attempt, by violence, to do an injury to the person of another. It must be intentional. If there is no present purpose to do an injury, there is no assault. There must also be an attempt. A purpose not accompanied by an effort to carry into immediate execution falls short of an assault. Thus no words can amount to an assault. But rushing towards another with menacing gestures, and with a purpose to strike, is an assault, though the accused is prevented from striking before he comes near enough to do so. . . .” (Code comrs. note foll. Ann. Pen. Code, § 240 (1st ed. 1872, Haymond & Burch, comrs.-annotators) p. 104.) This statement is authoritative. (See Walker v. Superior Court (1988) 47 Cal.3d 112, 125 [253 Cal.Rptr. 1, 763 P.2d 852].)
Thus, Carmen’s conclusion that assault requires a purpose to injure was sound. As we stated in People v. Wolcott (1983) 34 Cal.3d 92, 99 [192 Cal.Rptr. 748, 665 P.2d 520], “to constitute an assault, the defendant must . . . intend to commit a battery . . . .” To the same effect is People v. Fain (1983) 34 Cal.3d 350, 356 [193 Cal.Rptr. 890, 667 P.2d 694].
*224Unfortunately, Rocha, supra, 3 Cal.3d 893, commented that “the criminal intent . . . required for assault with a deadly weapon ... is the general intent to wilfully commit an act the direct, natural and probable consequences of which if successfully completed would be the injury to another.” (Id. at p. 899.)
Rocha was by and large soundly decided, and the dictum quoted above constituted a minor flaw. But so is a pinhole in a dike, and alas, the dictum gave rise to mischief. The “direct, natural and probable consequences” aside now forms the basis of the standard jury instruction on assault (CALJIC No. 9.00 (5th ed. 1988 bound vol.)), and also formed the basis of the instruction given in this case.
Giving an instruction based on CALJIC No. 9.00 violated state law and the federal Constitution because its language permitted the jury to convict defendant of assault without finding beyond a reasonable doubt that he had a purpose to injure. (See People v. Williams (1992) 4 Cal.4th 354, 365-367 [14 Cal.Rptr.2d 441, 841 P.2d 961] (conc. opn. of Mosk, J.).) The errors were compounded by giving another instruction that “when an act inherently dangerous to others is committed with a conscious disregard of human life and safety, the act transcends recklessness, and the intent to commit a battery is presumed.” That instruction was entirely bewildering as well as legally faulty.2
Thus, the standard instruction on assault requires reexamination. The majority are right to warn, however, that the jury can find the actor’s purpose was to injure by the circumstances surrounding the act. (See maj. opn., ante, pp. 218-219, fn. 10.)
Although giving the instructions violated state law and the federal Constitution, the errors were harmless because, as the majority observe, the jury specifically found that defendant intended to inflict great bodily injury on the victim. Any federal constitutional errors, on the basis of the instructions at issue here, of misstating an element of a crime, or of taking from the jury *225the question of defendant’s intent, thus were harmless. (Pope v. Illinois (1987) 481 U.S. 497, 501-503 [95 L.Ed.2d 439, 445-446 107 S.Ct. 1918]; Sullivan v. Louisiana (1993)_U.S____[124 L.Ed.2d 182,190,113 S.Ct. 2078] [dictum].) The same jury finding requires a conclusion that the clear state law errors in giving instructions that set forth the wrong mental state for an element of assault, or were confusing, or both, were harmless. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].)

The required mental state for simple assault and assault with a firearm, as charged here (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)), is the same. The greater crime varies from the lesser only in that it contains the additional element of the use of a firearm. There is no additional or different mental element.

Amicus curiae California Attorneys for Criminal Justice contends that the “direct, natural and probable consequences” formulation contained in Rocha, supra, 3 Cal.3d 893, sets forth a minimum mental component of recklessness.
There is no need to decide this point, for as long as that language omits the legislative requirement of a purpose to injure, it suffices to say that it is incorrect, whatever level of culpability it represents. But viewed in the abstract, the Rocha formulation may actually stand for strict ¿ability, because it omits any mental component whatever beyond the intent to do an act. For the Rocha language to mean recklessness, it would need to specify that the act was done in conscious disregard of the risk.
Clearly Rocha, supra, 3 Cal.3d 893, never intended to say that assault is a strict liability crime.