Court Opinion

ID: 9629982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:56:08.338734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:28.790400
License: Public Domain

Neill, J.
(concurring) — Defendant excepted to instruction No. 52 on the ground that it failed to inform the jury that it must find defendant “knowingly” aided and abetted the perpetration of a crime. I agree that an instruction to the jury solely in terms of “aids, assists or abets” fails to *863adequately convey the essential element that the defendant had knowledge that a crime was being committed: The majority cites State v. Hinkley, 52 Wn.2d 415, 325 P.2d 889 (1958), for the proposition that the term “abet” includes knowledge of the wrongful purpose of the perpetrator, but that case involved a challenge to the information, not the instructions. In fact, the jury in Hinkley was given an instruction proposed by defendant which told the jury, at page 418:
“You are instructed that before you can find the defendant Hinkley guilty of aiding and abetting Leroy E. Thrift in the crime of forging and uttering the checks set forth in Counts II, III, IV and V of the information, you must find that he, the said Hinkley, did so knowingly and with criminal intent. To abet 'another in the commission of a crime implies a consciousness of guilt in instigating, encouraging, promoting or aiding in the commission of such criminal offense.” (Italics ours.)
Instructions are to be read as a whole. Although it would be preferable, and under different circumstances required, to draft the “aid and abet” instruction to include the concept of knowledge, a reading of the entire instructions discloses that in the “charging instruction” (No. 1) the jury was informed that defendant was charged “with intent to defraud,” “willfully” “well knowing the [instrument] to be forged,” and “willfully and knowingly aid, abet, encourage, assist, advise and counsel ... in the unlawful act.” In the “to convict” instruction (No.-3) the jury was informed that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a spurious instrument was uttered, offered, or disposed of “knowing said instrument to be forged.” Further, defendant did not propose an instruction on knowledge even though expressly invited by the court to do so. Upon defendant’s failure to propose an instruction, the court went further and advised defendant’s counsel that he would be permitted to argue his theory of lack of knowledge to the jury.Thus, in viewing the record, the deficiency in instruction No. 5 is not a proper ground for reversal. Accord, People v. *864Dole, 122 Cal. 486, 55 P. 581 (1898); People v. Terman, 4 Cal. App. 2d 345, 40 P.2d 915 (1935); State v. Rindal, 146 Mont. 64, 404 P.2d 327 (1965).
Accordingly, I concur in the affirmance.
Petition for rehearing denied December 23, 1971.

Instruction No. 5: “Under the statutes of the State of Washington, every person who stands by aiding, assisting, or abetting, or who, not being present, directly or indirectly, has aided, assisted, abetted, advised, encouraged, or counseled the perpetration of a crime is guilty of the commission of the crime and shall be proceeded against and punished as a principal.
“The words ‘aid and abet’ comprehend all assistance rendered by words, acts, encouragement, support dr presence, actual- or constructive, to render assistance should it become necessary.”