Court Opinion

ID: 9597663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:01:39.227276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:39.017667
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, dissenting. Today, the major-ii ity publishes an opinion in which it refuses to rule on the legitimacy of two jury instructions crafted and given for the first time by the Pulaski County Circuit Court. One instruction, the choice-of-evils instruction, is based on a statute in our criminal code. The second is a unique entrapment-by-estoppel instruction, which was given as an affirmative defense. Neither instruction is part of our Arkansas Model Criminal Instructions. The majority says it is deciding the way it is because the instructions were given in connection with one factual situation and, thus, this case does not involve the uniform administration of justice as required under Rule 3. I disagree. For one thing, under this reasoning, the State could never appeal the legitimacy of a new custommade jury instruction. But, more importantly, by not addressing the issue of the validity of the two instructions, this court does not preclude their use for another day in another trial. Instructions that find their way into our caselaw receive a certain imprimatur of approval. The majority relies on State v. McCormack, 343 Ark. 285, 34 S.W.3d 735 (2000), as authority for dismissing this case, but that case is not apposite. In McCormack, we declined to take the case because it involved a determination of whether there was a rational basis for giving an instruction on a lesser-included offense. We decided that was an issue that required a factual analysis, that is, whether the facts provided a rational basis. But we specifically did not address the issue of whether the circuit court misinterpreted the statute in giving the instruction, because that issue was raised for the first time in the State’s reply brief. Misinterpretation and error in giving the choice-of-evils instruction are the precise issues before this court in the instant case. The same hold true of State v. Hulum, 349 Ark. 400, 78 S.W.3d 111 (2002), also adduced by the majority. It too is inapposite. That case concerned whether the circuit court erred in finding a rational basis for giving the manslaughter instruction. To state the obvious, the case before us does not involve the application of an existing lesser-included-offense instruction to the facts of a case, but, rather, whether a new instruction can be fashioned from a statute and then applied to a case by the circuit court when the case does not involve physical injury or destruction of property. I would accept the State’s appeal and consider whether the two instructions do wander far afield from what is appropriate and whether error was committed. Otherwise, this court would appear to be giving carte blanche approval for use of these instructions in future factual settings. In short, I would meet the issues raised by these instructions head on. I respectfully dissent. Glaze, J., joins in this dissent.