Court Opinion

ID: 9557811
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:58:08.974043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:22.421840
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Justice,
with whom MATTHEWS, Justice, joins, concurring.
I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of AS 11.15.200. That section I believe, was properly construed in Giles v. United States, 144 F.2d 860, 861 (9th Cir. 1944), to contain the requirement of an intentional pointing throughout its provisions. The third part of the statute, as I read it, applies where one intentionally points and discharges a firearm at a person or other object without knowing the identity of that object, i. e., without knowing whether it is a man, an animal, an automobile, or a baby carriage, and thereby maims or injures a human being. It differs from the second portion of the statute in that the conduct to be avoided is that of intentionally pointing and discharging a firearm at something which has not been identified by the shooter. The danger inherent in such practices is apparent, and it seems to me more likely that that is what the legislature had in mind.
I also disagree with the conclusion stated in note 29 that “the clause applies only to unintentional discharges.” My own view is that the statute requires that the discharge be intentional, at least in the sense that the defendant intentionally, rather than accidentally, pulled the trigger, even though he might not have intended to cause the weapon to actually fire. In addition, while an intentional discharge might permit an inference of specific intent to kill or a general intent to inflict harm, the jury could presumably still have a reasonable doubt as to either one of those two elements. Thus, I question whether the construction that is here suggested would raise the “serious questions of prosecutorial discretion and equal protection” feared by the majority.