Court Opinion

ID: 9617041
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:51:28.463617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:04.863003
License: Public Domain

Hicks, J.
(concurring) — The initial sentence of the instruction here concerned states, "The court instructs the jury that the law presumes that every man intends the natural and probable consequences of his own acts." The word "presume" means that a fact is "assumed to be true in the absence of proof to the contrary." The Heritage Dictionary and Information Book (1977). In this case the presumption that a "man intends the natural and probable consequences of his own act" may be taken to be true without further proof.
As an original proposition, the idea that one intends the natural and probable consequences of his acts does not appear particularly startling. The ordinary experience of virtually everyone would lend credence to the statement. Consequently, it has long been used as an instruction given to the jury in both civil and criminal cases. Now, however, the United States Supreme Court has decreed otherwise in criminal cases when the fact so presumed (intent) is an essential element of the crime charged. Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 61 L. Ed. 2d 39, 99 S. Ct. 2450 (1979).
Given the decisions of the high court, which we are compelled to follow, I would simply forego the use of the presumption instruction in a criminal case. Its use must be so circumscribed and the explanation of that use so involved, *620it seems to me the instruction becomes more confusing than illuminating to the jury.
Certainly, in this case the "presumption" sentence was not indispensable to the guidance of the jury. Without it, the instruction would read:
It is not necessary to establish intent by direct and positive evidence but intent may be established by inference and in the same way as any other fact by taking into consideration the acts of the parties and all the facts and circumstances of the case.
It seems to me that phrased that way, the instruction would offer sufficient guidance to the jury and it would not run afoul of the Supreme Court proscription.
If trial court instructions are phrased in terms of permissible inference rather than that of presumption, I venture that verdicts of juries would be little different than under past practice. In this instance, I agree with Justice Rosel-lini's dissent that in a retrial, given a reasonable jury, the result will be the same as in this case. Nonetheless, it seems to me that we are required to grant a new trial. Therefore, I concur with the majority.
Brachtenbach, J., concurs with Hicks, J.