Court Opinion

ID: 9544870
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:02:43.296102+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:43.629543
License: Public Domain

WOOD, Judge (specially concurring). Donnelly, J., concurs. Defendant was charged with killing the “unborn viable baby boy of Stella Benavidez” in the unlawful operation of a motor vehicle either by driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or by reckless driving. Section 66-8-101(A), N.M.S. A.1978 (1982 Cum.Supp.), requires the killing be “of a human being”. Being of the opinion that the Legislature did not intend “human being” to include a “viable unborn full-term child”, the trial court dismissed the charge. The question of legislative intent arises because “human being” is not defined in the Motor Vehicle Code, of which § 66-8-101, supra, is a part. See Laws 1978, ch. 35. The Code does define “person” to include “every natural person,” see § 66-1-4(B)(46), N.M.S.A.1978 (1982 Cum.Supp.), but this definition of “person” is not at all helpful. A review of the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code shows that “person” is used in the sense of one who has been born, and never in the sense of an unborn fetus. See, as examples, §§ 66-5-11, 66-5-39, 66-5-40, 66-5-401, 66-7-201, 66-7-356, 66-8-108, N.M.S.A.1978. State v. Dickinson, 28 Ohio St.2d 65, 275 N.E.2d 599 (1971), states that “natural” means “ ‘existing or present from birth.’ ” The homicide by vehicle provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code do not readily fit with the other provisions of that Code. See State v. Barela, 95 N.M. 349, 622 P.2d 254 (Ct.App.1980). The definition of “person” includes artificial entities. See State v. Brown, 378 So.2d 916 (La.1979). The Motor Vehicle Code provides no assistance in determining the meaning of “human being” in § 66-8-101, supra. The killing of a human being for which § 66-8-101, supra, provides a punishment is “homicide” by vehicle. The killing of a fetus, under the common law, was not homicide unless the fetus had been born alive; until born alive there was no human being. Keeler v. Superior Court of Amador County, 2 Cal.Sd 619, 87 Cal.Rptr. 481, 470 P.2d 617 (1970); People v. Greer, 79 Ill.2d 103, 37 Ill.Dec. 313, 402 N.E.2d 203 (1980); Means, The Phoenix of Abortional Freedom: Etc., 17 N.Y.L.F. 335 (1971). The common law of crimes applies except where the common law has been changed by statute. Territory v. Montoya, 17 N.M. 122, 125 P. 622 (1912). See § 30-1-3, N.M. S.A. 1978. This Court may not change the common-law meaning of human being, such a change is a legislative matter because it is the Legislature that defines crimes. State v. Allen, 77 N.M. 433, 423 P.2d 867 (1967). Although there may be a tort recovery for killing a viable fetus, Salazar v. St. Vincent Hospital, 95 N.M. 150, 619 P.2d 826 (Ct.App.1980), such a killing is not a criminal offense unless authority is found in legislation. This Court cannot establish a new offense. See People v. Greer, supra; State v. Brown, supra. Inasmuch as the Motor Vehicle Code shows no legislative intent to change the common-law definition of human being, we look to the Criminal Code and the legislative history of that Code. New Mexico departed from the common law when, by Laws 1853-54, art. 28, ch. Ill, § 10, it provided: Sec. 10. The willful killing of an unborn infant child, by any injury to the mother of such child, which would be murder if it resulted in the death of such mother, shall be deemed murder in the third degree. Defendant points out that this legislative treatment of the killing of an unborn infant child as murder was only a third degree felony. “Where the killing was of a ‘human being’, the otherwise identical facts could support a first degree murder conviction.” Defendant is asserting that the Legislature distinguished between the killing of a human being and the killing of an unborn infant child, and this distinction applies between a human being and a viable fetus. This argument overlooks how the killing of a human being was defined; Section 1 of the above-cited 1853-54 legislation defined the killing of a human being as murder. Defining the killing of a human being as first degree murder and defining the killing of an unborn infant child as third degree murder does not show a legislative intent that an unborn infant child was not to be considered a human being. Both of these “murder” provisions were included in a chapter of legislation dealing with offenses against “Lives and Persons.” See Salazar v. St. Vincent Hospital, supra. Defendant asserts: “In 1907, the term murder was removed from the statute proscribing the destruction of a viable fetus, although the crime remained a felony.” This is incorrect. Laws 1907, ch. 36, § 5 is substantially identical to the above-quoted 1853-54 law, except the crime was raised to “murder in the second degree.” The question of legislative intent in this case differs from the legislative intent question in Salazar v. St. Vincent Hospital, supra. In Salazar we were concerned with the meaning of “person” in the 1882 wrongful death statute; the 1853-54 statute dealing with offenses against lives and persons indicated a legislative understanding that a viable fetus was a person. Here we are concerned with the meaning of “human being”. See State v. Brown, supra. The 1853-54 statute is ambiguous; although the statutes defined the killing of a human being as murder and defined the killing of an unborn infant child as murder, there was no general definition of murder. Thus an ambiguity existed as to whether “human being” included “unborn infant child”. This ambiguity continued until 1891. The approach, that the killing of an unborn infant child was murder, begun in 1853-54, continued in the 1907 law, and was not changed until repealed by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 30-1. The approach, that the killing of a human being was murder, begun in 1853-54, was continued in C.L. 1865, ch. LI, § 1, C.L. 1884, § 687, and a similar 1887 law, Laws 1887, ch. XXIX, § 1. A change occurred in 1891. Laws 1891, ch. 80, § 1, added a general definition of murder — murder was the unlawful killing of a human being. This general definition continued in effect, see § 40-24-1, N.M.S.A. 1953 Comp. (Orig. Vol. 6), until repealed by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 30-1. Thus, immediately prior to enactment of the Criminal Code by Laws 1963, ch. 303, see § 30-1-1, N.M.S.A.1978, the Legislature defined the killing of an unborn infant child as murder (Laws 1907, ch. 36, § 5) and defined murder as the killing of a human being (Laws 1891, ch. 80, § 1). The relationship of these two statutes is the State’s strongest argument that the Legislature intended the killing of an unborn infant child to be the killing of a human being. We need not rule on the legislative intent shown by these two laws; both were repealed upon enactment of the Criminal Code. An aid in determining legislative intent in enacting the Criminal Code is the Committee Report (Report of Criminal Law Study Interim Committee, 1961-62). The Criminal Code, consistent with the Committee Report, continued to define murder as the killing of a human being. See § 30-2-1, N.M.S.A.1978 (1982 Cum.Supp.). The Committee Report recommended changes “where the existing law is unclear, unnecessary, a duplication or outmoded.” The structure of the Committee Report was: “The recommendations of the committee appear on the left-hand side of this report. To the right of each section appears the present statutes which are being repealed * * The Committee recommended that the statute defining the killing of an unborn infant child as murder be repealed; its replacement was the criminal abortion statute. This recommendation was followed by the Legislature, see Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 5-1, compiled as § 40A-5-1, N.M.S.A. 1953 Comp. (Repl.Vol. 6). This criminal abortion statute was changed to an even less restrictive provision by Laws 1969, ch. 67, § 3, compiled as § 30-5-3, N.M.S.A. 1978. The State contends that these criminal abortion statutes authorize us to hold that the killing of a viable fetus is the killing of a human being. This is incorrect. Neither the abortion statute which replaced the provision that the killing of the fetus was murder, § 40A-5-1 of the 1953 Compilation, nor its amended version, § 30-5-3, supra, defines murder, homicide or feticide; rather, these statutes were concerned with the special circumstances required for abortion to be a criminal offense. The contents of the abortion statutes show no legislative intent as to the meaning of “homicide” or “human being”, and the legislative history negates such an intent. There being no statutory provision showing a legislative intent to include a viable fetus within the meaning of “human being” for the purposes of the criminal law, the common-law meaning of “human being” applies. The trial court properly dismissed the charge.