Court Opinion

ID: 9724888
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:19:26.227297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:48.467908
License: Public Domain

PRENTICE, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment.
With regard to the sufficiency of the evidence upon the conviction for attempted murder, I am of the opinion that the majority's statement that premeditation is no longer an element of the crime of murder is misplaced but unnecessary to the result. Although murder does not now necessarily encompass intent or premeditation, the crime of "Attempt" does. Smith a/k/a Watford v. State, (1984) Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355.
Notwithstanding the Jury's gratuitous recommendation for leniency, a finding of the necessary element of intent was not negated. The words were mere surplusage and should be treated accordingly. Additionally, the use of the term "unpremeditated nature of the act" in the statement of the Jury obviously meant that the act of shooting was done in haste-without cool reflection-and not as a word of art to denote the element of a crime. To say that one attempted an act but did not intend to do so or did not premeditate it is a contradiction of terms.