Court Opinion

ID: 9551228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:49:32.998773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:21.206548
License: Public Domain

BRETT, Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
From the evidence produced for the jury, I concur that the evidence was sufficient to sustain this conviction, considering also that defendant admitted the sale. However, I must dissent to this Court’s treatment of defendant’s fifth proposition pertaining to a suspended sentence. I reiterate what I said in my dissent to Black v. State, Okl.Cr., 509 P.2d 941. In addition to the reasons set forth in that dissent, this case is another example of the justification for the discretionary judgment of the trial court to enter a suspension of the sentence when the situation appears to warrant such.
In the instant case the defendant is a diabetic patient, who requires the administration of insulin each day. This was her first offense and there was no showing that she had otherwise engaged in narcotics, except what the officers volunteered concerning LSD. Notwithstanding the fact that the jury returned a verdict assessing the minimum sentence, this conviction imposes additional burdens upon the penal system which might have been justifiably obviated by the suspension of the penitentiary sentence. Also, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the suspension might not be warranted under other circumstances. Consequently, it will be necessary for the penal authorities to obtain, store, and provide for the daily administration of the particular type of insulin defendant requires in order to assure her continued livelihood.
I am also compelled to dissent to this Court’s treatment of defendant’s second proposition pertaining to the quantity of narcotics considered. There is no doubt in my mind but that the legislature intended that a usable quantity of the illegal narcotic possessed, or otherwise considered in violation of the statutes, be proved in order to sustain a conviction. I repeat what was stated in my dissent to Morris v. State, Okl.Cr., 507 P.2d 1327, 1330 (1973), citing what the Nevada Supreme Court stated with reference to the possession of narcotics, in that court’s decision in Watson v. State, 495 P.2d 365 (1972):
“The intent necessary to establish the crime of possession simply does not exist when the amount is so minute as to be incapable of being applied to any use, even though chemical analysis may identify a trace of narcotics.” See other cases cited in Morris, supra.
Admittedly, it is a logical conclusion for the jury to reach the conclusion that a usable quantity of stimulant exists in the total of fifty mini-bennies, but that does not support this Court’s position that “any quantity” should support a conviction.
I agree also that there was not sufficient showing in this case to warrant an instruction on entrapment. Therefore, I concur in part, and dissent in part as herein stated, to this decision.