Court Opinion

ID: 9664198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:06:47.901742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:03.208540
License: Public Domain

Robert W. Hansen, J.
(concurring). Concurring completely with the result and reasoning of the majority, this separate opinion is added as a footnote to negative the apparent assumption of the trial judge that the evidence adduced by the state would not support a conviction on a sec. 943.32 (1) (b), Stats., charge of robbery by threat of force.
The defendant, twenty-four years of age, walked up to the sixty-three-year-old lady, his hand in his pocket, moved the pocketed hand, and said, “Don’t you holler or scream,” and asked, “What do you have on you?” Told of her having a little coin purse, he said, “What’s in it?” She handed over her purse. His actions and statements made it an entirely reasonable inference that a robbery by threat of force had been committed. The lady did not hand over her purse as a donation to her favorite charity. She relinquished possession to the stranger who accosted her because of fear of force being used against her. The victim of the robbery was not required to scream or begin an unequal struggle with the defendant to find out what he meant by what he said and did, or what he had in his pocket. She was not required to risk a bullet in the brain, a knife in the ribs, or a punch to the jaw to add the element of threatened force to the situation. The defendant himself added that element. The taking of the lady’s coin purse was clearly accomplished by the victim’s fear of force and defendant’s threat of force. We do not say the defendant should have been convicted of the more serious offense; we note merely that clearly he could have been.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Leo B. Han-ley joins in this concurring opinion.