Court Opinion

ID: 9549242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:15:20.748226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:01.805319
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice
(concurring):
I concur that the trial court did not err in not giving an instruction on negligent homicide because the defendant failed to ask for the instruction. But I do not agree with the view that there was no evidence to support such an instruction. I submit the majority seriously misconstrues the law of lesser included offenses and that had an instruction on criminal negligence been requested, it would have been reversible error to have refused it.
Defendant was convicted of manslaughter under Utah Code Ann., 1953, § 76-5-205, for recklessly causing the death of his wife. A person commits negligent homicide under § 76-5-206 when he causes the death of another while acting with criminal negligence. One engages in reckless conduct “when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.”1 § 76-2-103(3). One engages in criminally negligent conduct “when he ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.”1 § 76-2-103(4). The sole difference is whether the defendant actually knew of the risk or should have known of the risk.
The gravamen of the crime of negligent homicide is the same as that for reckless manslaughter. The only distinction between the two crimes is the mental state of the defendant at the time the crime was committed. In one, the actor perceives the risk but unreasonably disregards it; in the other, he simply negligently fails to perceive the risk. In tort law those two concepts are generally denominated assumption of risk and contributory negligence. Because the two concepts are so closely related, we have abolished the traditional terminology in civil cases. Moore v. Burton Lumber Co., Utah, 631 P.2d 865 (1981).
Courts generally have held that negligent homicide is a lesser included offense of reckless manslaughter. E.g., State v. Parker, 128 Ariz. 107, 624 P.2d 304 (1980); Lowe v. State, 264 Ark. 205, 570 S.W.2d 253 (1978); Till v. People, Colo., 581 P.2d 299 (1978); State v. Smith, Conn., 441 A.2d 84 (1981); People v. Strong, 37 N.Y.2d 568, 338 N.E.2d 602, 376 N.Y.S.2d 87 (1975); State v. Cameron, 121 N.H. 348, 430 A.2d 138 (1981); Aliif v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 627 S.W.2d 166 (1982). See State v. Mattingly, 23 Or.App. 173, 541 P.2d 1063 (1975).
In People v. Stanfield, 36 N.Y.2d 467, 330 N.E.2d 75, 369 N.Y.S.2d 118 (1975), a case not unlike the instant, defendant was convicted of reckless manslaughter for shooting his common law wife. The defendant *657had cocked the hammer of his pistol, pointed the barrel upward at about a 45 degree angle but in the direction of his wife who stood very close to him, and told her he was going to shoot her. His wife responded, “ ‘[Djon’t mess with the gun like that,’ and then slapped his hand or arm.” The weapon discharged and inflicted the mortal wound. In holding that the trial court erred in not instructing on criminal negligence, the court stated:
[C]riminal recklessness and criminal negligence with respect to a particular result — there homicide — may in a particular case, if not hypothetically or definitionally, be but shades apart on the scale of criminal culpability. And the distinction between the two mental states is less clear practically than theoretically.... [I]t seems manifest that in a practical, if not a literal definitional sense, if one acts with criminal recklessness he is at least criminally negligent. Moreover, negligence may, in a particular case, quickly, even imperceptibly, aggravate on the scale of culpability to recklessness.
Id. at 471, 330 N.E.2d at 77, 369 N.Y.S.2d at 121.
In People v. Strong, 37 N.Y.2d 568, 338 N.E.2d 602, 376 N.Y.S.2d 87 (1975), defendant, a leader in the Sudan Muslim religion, purportedly exercised his powers of “mind over matter” in a religious ceremony that he had apparently performed successfully on prior occasions in which he stops a follower’s heartbeat and breathing and plunges knives into the victim’s chest without any injury to the person. This time, however, the wounds from the knives proved fatal. The court held:
We view the record as warranting the submission of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide since there is a reasonable basis upon which the jury could have found that the defendant failed to perceive the risk inherent in his actions....
That is not to say that the court should in every case where there is some subjective evidence of lack of perception of danger submit the lesser crime of criminally negligent homicide. Rather, the court should look to other objective indications of a defendant’s state of mind to corroborate, in a sense, the defendant’s own subjective articulation....
... [0]n the particular facts of this case, we conclude that there is a reasonable view of the evidence which, if believed by the jury, would support a finding that the defendant was guilty only of the crime of criminally negligent homicide, and that the trial court erred in not submitting, as requested, this lesser offense to the jury.
Id. at 571-72, 338 N.E.2d at 604-05, 376 N.Y.S.2d at 89-90.
On the particular facts of this case, I think the conclusion is inescapable that there is a reasonable view of the evidence which would support an acquittal of reckless manslaughter and a conviction for criminal negligent homicide. The defendant testified, and the State concedes, that the defendant did not think that the gun was loaded. Thus, the State in effect concedes that defendant did not consciously disregard the risk because, if as believed, the gun was unloaded, there was no risk.
In a factual setting similar to the instant case, the court in State v. Cameron, 121 N.H. 348, 430 A.2d 138 (1981), stated:
The risk of death to the wife, however, depended upon the gun being loaded. Consequently, the defendant’s knowledge of that risk depended upon whether he knew that the gun was loaded. He testified that he did not know the gun was loaded at the time in question, and this created an issue for the jury to decide. If the defendant did not know that the gun was loaded, then he could be found not to have been aware of the risk of death to his wife but instead negligent in failing to. become aware of the risk.
Id. 430 A.2d at 140. The court’s logic in Cameron has equal force in the instant case.
I submit that the majority errs in stating that criminal negligence in this case is not a lesser included offense of reckless manslaughter “since under any reasonable view of the evidence as to the defendant’s intent *658... there was no evidence to support a verdict of guilty of negligent homicide.” The difficulty with the majority opinion, as I see it, goes deeper, however, than this particular case. The difference between negligence and recklessness is not marked by a sharp analytical line. On the contrary, the difference generally lies in making a judgment as to where on a continuum of unreasonable conduct one’s behavior passes from negligence to recklessness. In essence it is a matter of judging when conduct is no longer just gray but dark gray. Such judgments are for juries to make, not judges by refusing to instruct on lesser offenses. It is the jury, after all, that brings a collective experience and judgment that no judge can duplicate in making judgments based on everyday experiences.

. Under our code the conduct constituting both criminal negligence and recklessness must result in “a gross deviation” from the standard of care exercised by an ordinary person. § 76-2-103(3)-(4).