Court Opinion

ID: 9786761
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:02:17.97817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:48.409358
License: Public Domain

SULT, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
¶ 15 As I understand the majority’s holding, A.R.S. § 28-708(A) is a specific intent crime. The conduct proscribed is “speed or acceleration” and the intent that must accompany the conduct is either “intentional participation in operating motor vehicles competitively” or the “deliberate drawing of public attention to the vehicle’s quality for swiftness.” Majority Opinion, ¶ 9 (quoting People v. Heckard, 164 Colo. 19, 431 P.2d 1014, 1016 (1967)). I agree with this construction of the statute and also agree that this construction rescues the statute from the defect of vagueness. Where I disagree with the majority is in its disposition of the cas.e. In my opinion, the only proper disposition is to remand the matter to the superior court, whose appellate review power in this context is unrestricted, with directions to examine the validity of defendant’s conviction in light of our construction of § 28-708(A).
¶ 16 The majority correctly notes that our review in this matter is limited to considering the facial validity of the statute, citing A.R.S. § 22-375. Majority Opinion, ¶ 3. The majority says this means our jurisdiction does not extend to examining the application of the statute to the individual defendant. Id. While I agree that we are not to conduct a review of the municipal or justice court’s application of the statute, this does not mean that no one should. It is my position that where, as here, a state statute applicable in municipal and justice courts is construed for the first time by an Arizona appellate court, the matter must be remanded to the superior court so that there can be a determination in light of the clarifying construction whether the trial court properly convicted the defendant.
¶ 17 When the majority affirms defendant’s conviction here, it in effect declares that the trial court anticipated our construction of § 28-708(A) and correctly applied it by finding that defendant had the specific intent necessary to support a conviction. Not only is this attribution of prescience unwarranted, indications are that the contrary is true. Defendant tells us in his reply brief that at trial the prosecution argued that § 28-708(A) was a strict liability crime. Defendant responded that it was a specific intent crime. According to defendant, the court rejected his argument.
¶ 18 I do not suggest that defendant’s assertions regarding what actually happened at the trial court are binding on us and require that we vacate his conviction. Rather, I use *553these assertions to illustrate the risk involved in assuming that anyone, including the trial court, could have known what § 28-708(A) required before the issuance of an opinion of this court saying so. While I agree that § 22-375 precludes this court from inquiring further as to how the trial court actually applied the statute, in no way does that statute preclude us from remanding the matter to the court that has the power to make that inquiry. This is the disposition that we should make.