Court Opinion

ID: 9617036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:51:27.875189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:04.541980
License: Public Domain

Hicks, J.
(concurring in the result) — A cursory reading of the majority opinion illustrates the confusion that may be visited upon the jury when a trial court instructs regarding presumptions in a criminal case. Given the decisions of the United States Supreme Court concerning presumptions in criminal cases, decisions which we are in large measure compelled to follow, I would simply forego the use of presumption instructions in such cases.
It is my belief that a permissive inference instruction that does not trench on a high court proscription can serve the purpose of guiding the jury almost as well as a presumption instruction. The instant case serves as an example. Rather than the involved presumption instruction that was given which concerned the element of "intent", it is my belief that the following simple inference instruction would have served better:
It is not necessary to establish intent by direct and positive evidence, but intent may be established by inference in the same way as any other fact by taking into consideration the acts of the parties and all the facts and circumstances of the case.
Such an instruction gives guidance to the jury without much chance of confusing it. The Supreme Court should readily accept the instruction as unflawed in a constitutional sense.
I concur in the result of the majority because I believe that United States Supreme Court decisions require such a result. I would not, however, continue to struggle in criminal cases with various kinds of presumptions as circumscribed by involved explanations of how they are to be used. Illumination for the jury, not confusion, should be the objective of instructions. As constrained by the majority *584opinion, I don't believe presumption instructions can reach that objective in criminal cases.
Williams, J., concurs with Hicks, J.