Court Opinion

ID: 9702981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:35:43.014129+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:44.522358
License: Public Domain

*419Justice WALLACE, JR.,
concurring.
I concur in the result. In a very clear fashion, the majority appropriately concludes that “the evidence produced overall by the State was sufficient to survive a motion for acquittal on the charge of murder,” ante at 412, 939 A.2d at 789, and remands for reinstatement of defendant’s conviction of the lesser included offense of aggravated manslaughter, ante at 416-17, 939 A.2d at 792. That should end the ease.
Whatever shortcomings some members of the Court view in Justice Pashman’s opinion in State v. Christener, 71 N.J. 55, 362 A.2d 1153 (1976), our conclusion that there was no error in submitting the murder charge to the jury eliminated the need to reexamine Christener. We should not decide issues that are rendered moot by our holding. In my view, we should wait until the issue is ripe.
Justice HOENS joins in this concurrence.
For reversal and remandment and reinstatement—Chief Justice RABNER and Justices LONG, LaVECCHIA, ALBIN, WALLACE, RIVERA-SOTO and HOENS—7.
Opposed — None.