Court Opinion

ID: 9791163
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:06:56.6138+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:34.517488
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring with comments):
I concur with the main opinion, and in doing so, offer further explanatory comments. The crime proscribed by Sec. 76-6-503 has these essential elements: (1) the falsification, (2) with intent to deceive or injure others, (3) of certain named documents, (4) for which the law provides for public recording. The succeeding section, 504, contains each of the elements of the crime for other documents, but omits element no. 4 above. Thus, if the defendant’s act offended against three of the four elements, but not the fourth, he could' be found guilty of the lesser offense.
A person accused of crime is entitled to a liberal construction of a statute in his favor and, correlatively, can be found guilty of an offense only if it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that his conduct comes within the prohibitions of the statute. It seems to me that it requires a somewhat strained rationalization of the statutes involved to postulate that articles of incorporation are documents “for which the law provides public recording.” Therefore, as the main opinion indicates, the trial court should have found the defendant guilty of the lesser offense, as permitted by Sec. 76-3-402; and this Court can correct that judgment as permitted by Sec. 77-42-3, U.C.A.1953.