Court Opinion

ID: 9532998
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:27:15.57558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:53.544066
License: Public Domain

PRENTICE, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority.
With respect to Issue I, the question is similar to the one addressed in Smith a/k/a Watford v. State, (1984) Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355, which we reversed (Givan, C.J. and Pivarnik, J. dissenting) upon a faulty instruction which was as follows:
“STATE’S INSTRUCTION NO. 3
You are instructed that the essential elements of the crime of attempted Murder which the State of Indiana must prove beyond a reasonable doubt are the following:
1. That the Defendent (sic) knowingly,
2. Engaged in conduct that constituted a substantial step toward the commission of Murder.”
I believe, however, that the information was adequate not because the word “murder” implies intent but because the word “attempt” implies an intent to accomplish a particular result. The information, therefore, would have been adequate had the word “knowingly” been omitted.
Upon Issue II, the evidence was not admissible under Patterson v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 55, 324 N.E.2d 482 and other cases cited by the majority. The Patterson Rule is not so much a rule for determining the admissibility of hearsay as it is one for determining the use of such evidence, as substantive evidence, once it has been ad*707mitted under some exception to the hearsay rule. Samuels v. State, (1978) 267 Ind. 676, 678-79, 372 N.E.2d 1186, 1187; Smith v. State, (1983) Ind., 446 N.E.2d 949, 959, 60. “To the extent that it [Patterson] has ... been used to support the admission of out-of-court statements as a mere substitute for available in-court testimony, it has been misapplied.” Samuels, 267 Ind. at 679, 372 N.E.2d at 1187. The evidence was improperly admitted, but I believe that Defendant was not harmed by its admission.