Court Opinion

ID: 9790943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:01:51.54998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:32.750148
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice, specially
concurring.
I agree that this case must be returned to the district court so that Barry Soder-gren can be tried for manslaughter. I am not satisfied that the appropriate way to achieve that result is to declare that § 31-5-1117(b), W.S.1977, is unconstitutional. Rather than being ambiguous and internally inconsistent, the statute can be read together with the manslaughter statute, § 6-4-107, W.S.1977, to the end that both may stand. This would honor our usual reluctance to inquire into the constitutionality of a statute on our own motion. At the same time it would give effect to the intention of the legislature.
It seems very clear to me that the legislature excepted from the reach of § 6-4-107, W.S.1977, those unlawful acts “as provided in W.S. 31-5-1117.” The unlawful acts provided in that statute are those which are encompassed by the phrase, “but with a conscious disregard of the safety of others, * * * while engaged in the violation of any state law or ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle or to the regulation of traffic.” Excepted from § 31-5-1117(b), W.S.1977, are those instances “when the violation of law involves culpable neglect or criminal carelessness.” A legislative intent that some homicides flowing from the operation of a motor vehicle could be prosecuted under the manslaughter statute is discernible from these reciprocatory exceptions.
The Supreme Court of Maine, concededly examining a different statutory framework, concluded that a statute proscribing “depraved indifference” homicide required an objective evaluation of the defendant’s conduct in the eyes of a reasonable person. The court contrasted other crimes requiring reckless action which the Maine statute in part defined as a “conscious disregard” of a risk. The court stated that “conscious disregard” is a subjective state of mind, and that while the objective inquiry required no evidence of the defendant’s subjective state of mind, the other offenses did. State v. Goodall, Me., 407 A.2d 268 (1979).
I am persuaded that the Wyoming legislature intended that result in the contemporaneous adoption of amendments to the vehicular homicide statute and the manslaughter statute in 1979, and that the legislative intent was not adjusted by the 1982 amendment to the negligent homicide statute. Thus, conduct which would match the Wyoming Pattern Jury Instruction defining “culpable neglect” and “criminal carelessness,” that is of “a gross or flagrant character, such as would show wantonness or recklessness, and would demonstrate a reckless disregard of human life or the safety of others, or an indifference to consequences equivalent to criminal intent” would be objectively evaluated by the jury. Conversely a subjective evaluation of “conscious disregard of the safety of others” while violating a state law or ordinance relating to the operation of a motor vehicle would be required in order to convict of negligent homicide. That verdict would have to be based upon evidence of the defendant’s subjective state of mind.
*530The district judge in dismissing this case relied upon State v. Rideout, Wyo., 450 P.2d 452 (1969), and concluded that because this court in that case ruled that “careless disregard of the safety of others” was not distinguishable from the definition of negligence necessary to support a manslaughter conviction the offenses are not now distinguished by the use of the language “conscious disregard.” Recognizing the holdings of our earlier cases involving the manslaughter statute and the negligent homicide statute, we were in those cases considering the concept of implied repeal. Because of the contemporaneous action by the legislature I would not accept those as binding precedents in the instant case which assumes a different statutory scheme articulated by the legislature. The question of unconstitutionality is different from the question of implied repeal, and as the majority opinion would indicate we are foreclosed from a conclusion of implied repeal.
It is my view that when the operation of a motor vehicle involving culpable neglect or criminal carelessness causes a death the legislature intended that the case be prosecuted under the manslaughter statute, even though the evidence might disclose an incidental violation of a state law or ordinance applying to the operation or use of a vehicle or to the regulation of traffic. The legislature adopted the method it used and the phrase “conscious disregard” in order to avoid the pitfalls which the earlier decisions of this court seem to present. The elements of proof under the two statutes would not be exactly the same, and consequently they do not proscribe substantially the same conduct. See Bell v. State, Alaska, 598 P.2d 908 (1979); and State v. Modica, 58 Hawaii 249, 567 P.2d 420 (1977). Recognizing the viability of both statutes is the better approach to acknowledging the legislative intent, and does offer some advantage to the defendant. Even taking into account our holding in Balsley v. State, Wyo., 668 P.2d 1324 (1983), it seems to me that in a prosecution for manslaughter if the evidence disclosed the commission of an unlawful act involving the operation of a motor vehicle, and there was evidence of the subjective state of mind of the defendant which would demonstrate conscious disregard, the defendant would be entitled to claim an instruction on the offense of negligent homicide. In such an instance the matter then would be left to the jury to determine which of the statutes the defendant had violated as a matter of fact. In my judgment this would be a satisfactory approach.
I agree that the case should be reversed and remanded to the district court for trial under the manslaughter statute, but I would do so under the foregoing rationale rather than declaring the negligent homicide provision unconstitutional.