Court Opinion

ID: 9632354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:11:39.373549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:13.680189
License: Public Domain

Abbott, J.,
concurring: I would affirm the convictions because the trial judge’s failure to give the general criminal intent instruction and the judge’s erroneous comments only amount to harmless error in this case. I am concerned about two parts of the majority opinion, and I am also concerned about one issue that is not raised by the parties; hence, it is not before the court, but is an area which the bench and bar needs to give juries guidance on.
In discussing the trial court’s interruption of the defendant’s counsel regarding the defendant’s intent, the majority included the sentence “Counsel voiced no contemporaneous objection to the judge’s comment.” We ordinarily do not review claimed error where a contemporaneous objection is not made. I do not believe counsel is, or should be, required to object on the record to a trial judge interrupting counsel in closing argument and misleading the jUI7-
*1036My second concern is the majority’s holding that the trial judge’s erroneous comments to the jury were invited error. The comments simply were not invited error. However, I agree that, under the circumstances, the erroneous comments did not create reversible error.
Finally, my real concern in this case is the issue that is not before us. The issue is intertwined with the criminal intent problem. This court has clarified that force and fear in a rape case are measured from the victim’s viewpoint. As I see it, we need to give the juiy a standard to determine if the victim is overcome by “force or fear.” The jury should have been instructed in this case that the victim’s fear must be genuine and reasonable under the circumstances. In some cases, a victim’s fear could be unreasonable under the circumstances and the defendant could still be convicted if the defendant knew the victim was subject to fear that was unreasonable and took advantage of it.
By not giving the jury some sort of standard, we invite appeals that frequently have no merit.
Allegrücci, J., joins in the foregoing concurring opinion.