Court Opinion

ID: 9516943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:57:09.170405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:35.856748
License: Public Domain

Smith, J. (concurring).
I join the majority opinion, but write separately to express my view on a question that opinion does not reach: whether any mens rea is required of an “aider” in a gang assault (see majority op at 566). I would answer that question yes. While the aider need not share the intent of the defendant, an innocent bystander—for example, one who inadvertently blocks the victim’s path of escape—could not, in my view, be an aider. The Appellate Division opinion in People v Green (126 AD2d 105 [2d Dept 1987], affd 71 NY2d 1006 [1988]) and the dissenting opinion of Justice Silverman in People v Hampton (92 AD2d 490, 492 [1st Dept 1983], affd 61 NY2d 963 [1984]) suggest that the minimum mental state required of an aider should be that described in Penal Law § 115.00 (1), which says that a person commits criminal facilitation in the fourth degree when he acts “believing it probable that he is rendering aid . . . to a person who intends to commit a crime.” I would not uphold a conviction for gang assault where the alleged aiders did not have at least that much culpability.
*568In the cases now before us, neither defendant asked the court to charge in the language of Penal Law § 115.00 (1). The charges that were given, however, did not permit the juries to convict defendants if the alleged aiders had no mens rea at all. In each case, the charge told the jury that an aider would not be “actually present” unless he were “ready, willing and able” to help defendant commit the crime. Willingness to help is a more culpable mental state than the mere belief that one is probably helping, and thus each of these defendants received a more favorable charge than I think he was entitled to.