Court Opinion

ID: 9681831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:57:19.607684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:36.112285
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge
(concurring and dissenting) .
I fully agree with Judge Odom’s dissenting opinion and would further add that I cannot understand why the majority cannot realize the simple fact that the doctrine of stare decisis has no application where the court has clearly been wrong in the past.
The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly demonstrated that where prior decisions need to be overturned, it is the duty and obligation of the highest appellate court to refuse to apply the doctrine. See Escobeda v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964) and Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). This Court has an equal obligation.
The science of physics used to teach that an atom was the smallest piece of matter and could not be split. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we know better and now reject that doctrine.
I would reverse and remand.