Court Opinion

ID: 9583632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:40:44.796194+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:26.539457
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Division 2; I concur in Division 1 except that I would not place very heavy reliance on Baxter v. State, 176 Ga. App. 154, 157 (7) (335 SE2d 607) (1985). It is dangerous for the trial court, in instructing the jury what law to apply in deciding a criminal case, not to clearly state what the elements of the crime are. Where the indictment is artfully drawn so as to clearly recite them, reading the indictment may be sufficient because it tells the jury precisely what they must find as fact, beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to return a verdict of guilty. But when the reading of the indictment does not do the job, the court is obligated to go further, filling in what might not be clearly stated for the jury’s understanding. When the court reads the indictment and also undertakes to set out the elements as such, such undertaking should be complete and correct; otherwise there is substantial room for confusion by the jury which could choose to base a verdict on finding only the elements itemized by the court, having given heed to the court’s caution that the indictment is merely the means by which the State charges the defendant. In Baxter, the trial court defined arson differently than the indictment charged.
In the instant case, the definition, that is, a recitation of the elements, was not in conflict with what was in the indictment. In its instructions to the jury, the court read the indictment as constituting what defendant was charged with, including that there was an attempt to take property from the immediate presence of Teresa Hicks by sudden snatching. It also instructed the jury that the allegations of the indictment and the plea of not guilty formed the issue it was to try, that is, whether he was “guilty of the crime charged in this indictment.” Finally, it charged that if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant “did intentionally attempt to commit the offense of robbery as charged in this Bill of Indictment,” then it should find defendant guilty. There is thus no basis for jury confusion here or lack of understanding that it had to find a taking from a person or from the immediate presence of a person. Compare Phillips v. State, 176 Ga. App. 834 (338 SE2d 57) (1985). What the trial court must assure is that the jury is aware of the facts it must find in order to convict; if the charge as a whole falls short in conveying the elements, it cannot be concluded that the jury was aware of the elements and *262that it did not base guilt upon a misunderstanding of what constituted the crime.
Decided December 5, 1985
Rehearing denied December 18, 1985.
W. Dennis Mullís, for appellant.
James L. Wiggins, District Attorney, Michael T. Solis, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.