Court Opinion

ID: 9533029
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:27:40.854659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:54.153066
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring in result.
I am not persuaded that the legislative restriction upon the availability of the defense of intoxication in I.C. § 35-41-3-5 should be overridden. I am unable to say that there is no rational basis for restricting its availability to the defense of charges based upon offenses defined by statute by use of the phrases “with intent to” or “with an intention to.” A basis for the underlying premise of the general and broad inapplicability of the defense of intoxication could be that the legislature has determined that the effect of the alcohol molecule upon the system of a conscious and active human organism is such that it leaves the moral faculty unimpeded in its capacity to conceive of conduct and evaluate its moral quality. A basis for the express premise of the special and exceptional applicability of the defense of intoxication where offenses defined by use of the statutory phrases “with intent to” or “with an intention to” are involved could be that such offenses are peculiar in that they involve a more complex state of mind having two levels or parts. For example in the crime of burglary, there is that level relating to the conduct of breaking and entering and that level focused upon a plan to steal, rape, etc. The legislature may well have concluded that alcohol can incapacitate the conscious and active person from simultaneously maintaining both these levels. In Williams v. State, (1980) 273 Ind. 105, 402 N.E.2d 954 which is well recognized as having triggered the incorporation of these limiting phrases into the defense of intoxication statute, this Court did not override the general and broad statutory restriction upon the availability of the defense of in*1090toxication, but construed the newly enacted substantive criminal statutes as having been taken within the already existing class of offenses to which the defense of intoxication was applicable. The subsequent amendment clarified that situation, and clearly evidences that the use of the new terms knowing and intentional had not been intended to effect that end. We did not override the restriction in the defense of intoxication statute in Williams, and I would not do so now.