Court Opinion

ID: 9590973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:00:46.140216+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:42:54.524129
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
In addition to the analysis conveyed in the majority opinion, there is the point that the common meaning of “molestation” clearly includes the behavior of which defendant Vines is accused in this case. According to Webster’s Third International Dictionary, “molestation” means “a cause or state of harassment: vexation; an act or instance of molesting: annoyance, obstruction; wilful injury inflicted upon another by interference with his use of rights as to person, character, social position, or property.”
Although the statutory caption-of the crime described in OCGA § 16-6-4, “Child molestation,” is not a part of the law, OCGA § 1-1-7, the offense is so named in the body of the statute itself. The meaning ascribed by the statute expressly does not require that the perpetrator and the victim be in each other’s physical presence; “in the presence of” is only one of three alternatives. On this point the statute is in accord with the dictionary meaning.
Thus the statute, as applied in this case, does not run afoul of *783the principle that “a penal statute must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Chancey v. State, 256 Ga. 415, 428 (4) (D) (349 SE2d 717) (1986). See also Johnson v. State, 264 Ga. 590, 591 (1) (449 SE2d 94) (1994); State v. Burch, 264 Ga. 231 (443 SE2d 483) (1994). Applying the test repeated and applied in Chancey, people of “common intelligence” are not left to “guess at the meaning of [the] statute” in order to know whether or not the behavior Vines allegedly engaged in constitutes a violation of it. Id. It also meets the “common understanding” test used as a measurement in Connally v. State, 265 Ga. 563, 564 (3) (458 SE2d 336) (1995), and Simmons v. State, 262 Ga. 674 (424 SE2d 274) (1993).