Court Opinion

ID: 9730036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:58:05.269274+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:03.409005
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent.
I cannot agree with the majority’s attempt to “distinguish” this case from the recent Indiana Supreme Court opinion of Smith v. State (1981), Ind., 422 N.E.2d 1179 which was authored by Justice Pivarnik and concurred in by Justices Givan, Hunter and Prentice with Justice DeBruler concurring in its result.
In Smith the Court held that the trial court properly refused Smith’s instruction on criminal recklessness as a lesser-included offense of attempted murder. The instruction offered by Smith used the words “recklessly, knowingly or intentionally,” which are terms of art that have special legal definition. The Indiana Supreme Court has held previously that use of a word of art in an instruction requires a further instruction on the definition of that word, and since Smith tendered no additional instructions on the definitions of those terms, the instruction was confusing and properly refused.
The cause before us presents an almost identical situation. Johnson argues that his instructions on criminal recklessness as a lesser-included offense of battery should have been given to the jury. Johnson’s tendered instructions contain the terms of art of “recklessly, knowingly or intentionally.” As did Smith, Johnson tendered no additional instructions on the definitions of those terms. Therefore, as in Smith, Johnson’s instructions were confusing and properly refused. The Smith case is squarely on point, yet the majority avoids this result by attempting to distinguish the two cases.
The majority opinion goes to great lengths to argue that the terms “recklessly, knowingly or intentionally” should be given their ordinary meanings. Yet, in Smith the Indiana Supreme Court specifically said that these terms were words of art which required further instructions to define them.
The majority states, “Second, the absence of instructions defining the words ‘recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally’ was not fatal because the record reveals that the trial court and the parties to the action were operating under the belief that the jury understood the legal meanings ascribed to those words.” The record is absolutely void of any evidence to support such a statement. We must be concerned with what knowledge the jurors had and nothing in the record tells us. No one can see into the minds of the members of the jury and know why they believed or understood, much less reflect such knowledge in the written record. And as Judge Staton said in the case of Barfell v. State (1979), Ind.App., 399 N.E.2d 377, when a record is silent, the court must refuse to consider evidence which is outside it.
In light of the controlling precedent of Smith, the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.