Court Opinion

ID: 9853847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:56:08.357746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:11.508991
License: Public Domain

Sears, Justice
dissenting.
I respectfully join Presiding Justice Fletcher’s dissent. Furthermore, I cannot agree with the majority’s analysis that simply because Loren, a 15-year-old girl raised in deplorable conditions and herself the victim of mistreatment and molestation, was convicted on the malice murder count, any charging error associated with the felony murder count is rendered harmless. When faced with separate murder counts regarding the same death, I believe it is unwise for the court to make distinctions based upon technical legal niceties that cannot also be made by jurors unschooled in the law’s complexities.