Court Opinion

ID: 9550344
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:34:15.331304+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:25.226262
License: Public Domain

SCHWAB, C. J.,
dissenting.
The indictment in pertinent part reads as follows:
*301"State of Oregon, Plaintiff Jeffrey J. Cohen, Defendant(s)
)
) INDICTMENT
)
) ORS 163.095 - Count I
) ORS 163.115 - Count II
) * * * * *
)
"The above-named defendant(s) is/are1 accused by the Grand Jury of Washington County by this indictment of the crime(s) of aggravated murder in Count I, murder in Count II * * *
"That the above-named defendant(s) on or about the 2nd day of May 1978, in Washington County, Oregon, did unlawfully and knowingly commit the crime of robbery, and in the course of and in furtherance of the said crime which the said defendant was committing, the said defendant did cause the death of another human being, to-wit: Donald V. Baune, by shooting him with a firearm, to-wit: a pistol,
Count II
as an alternative means of committing the crime alleged in Count I, the above-named defendant on or about the 2nd day of May, 1978, in Washington County, Oregon, did unlawfully and intentionally cause the death of another human being, to-wit: Donald V. Baune, by shooting him with a firearm, to wit: a pistol « * * * * * ”
I agree that if we look only to the body of Count I of the indictment, it suffers from the ambiguity discussed in the majority opinion. However, the indictment in its entirety resolves the ambiguity in favor of a clear and unequivocal charge that the defendant personally shot the decedent to death in violation of ORS 163.095 (aggravated murder).
I would affirm.

 The plural forms of the words were not deleted on the indictment.