Court Opinion

ID: 9673720
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:17:02.202095+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:23.729698
License: Public Domain

Conley Byrd, Justice, dissenting. In the performance of my duties, I find no pleasure in reversing a criminal case when the accused’s conduct is akin to that of a vicious beast, even though the law requires a new trial. Believing, however, as between an individual and society, that the law should be fairly and impartially applied without respect to personalities, I undertake, without pleasure, to show my disagreement with that portion of the majority view holding that the failure to instruct on second degree murder was not error. One of the statutes here involved is Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-1024 (Repl. 1964) which provides: “Amendment of indictment. — The prosecuting attorney or other attorney representing the State, with leave of the court, may amend an indictment, as to matters of form, or may file a bill of particulars. But no indictment shall be amended, nor bill of particulars filed, so as to change the nature of the crime charged or the degree of the crime charged. All amendments and bills of particulars shall be noted of record.” It will be noted that the statute provides that, “no indictment shall be amended, nor bill of particulars filed, so as to change the nature of the crime charged or the degree of the crime charged.” In the first Bosnick case, Bosnick v. State, 248 Ark. 846, 454 S. W. 2d 311, we pointed out that the information here involved charged that “class of murder” known as “premeditated murder” and that it was error to fail to instruct the jury on second degree murder. The distinction between “premeditated murder” and “felony murder” came into being through interpretations of this court. In the Revised Statutes of 1838, approved by the legislature March 10, 1838, “offenses against the persons of individuals” was divided into MURDER and MANSLAUGHTER. Murder was defined as (Revised Statutes, Chap. XLIV, Div. Ill, Art. I, Sec. I) “. . . the unlawful killing of a human being, in the peace of the State, with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied.” The only penalty was death (Chap. XLIV, Div. Ill, Art. I, Sec. 7.). Manslaughter was defined (Chap. XLIV, Div. Ill, Art. II, Sec. 1) as “. . . the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice express or implied, and without deliberation.” The penalty was a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000 and imprisonment not exceeding seven years. Subsequently by an act approved December 17, 1888, the legislature provided: “An Act modifying the Penal Code, to correspond with the establishment of a Penitentiary. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, that all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison or by lying in wait, or by any other means of wilfull, deliberate, malicious, and premediated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, arson, rape, robbery, burglary, or larceny, shall be deemed murder in the first degree, and all other murder shall be deemed murder in the second degree; and the jury shall in all cases of murder, on conviction of the accused, find by their verdict, whether he be guilty of murder in the first or second degree; but if the accused confess his guilt, the court shall impannel and examine testimony, and the degree of crime shall be found by such jury. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That every person convicted of murder in the first degree, or as accessory before the fact to such murder, shall suffer death by hanging by the neck; and every person convicted of murder in the second degree, shall be sentenced to undergo imprisonment in the public jail and penitentiary house, for a period not less than five years nor more than twenty-one years. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That whoever shall be convicted of the crime of voluntary manslaughter, shall undergo imprisonment in said jail and penitentiary house, for a period of not less than two nor more than seven years; and every person who shall be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, shall be imprisoned in said jail and penitentiary house, for a period not exceeding twelve months. . .” Over the years the clauses in the first section of the act became codified as separate statutes. That section now appears in Arkansas Statutes Annotated as follows: “Ark. Stat. § 41-2205. MURDER IN FIRST DECREE DEFINED All murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of wilful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration of or in the attempt to perpetrate, arson, rape, robbery, burglary or larceny, shall be deemed murder in the first deeree. [Act Dec. 17, 1858, § l(lst clause), p. 121; C. & M. Dig., § 2343; Pope’s Dig., § 2969.] “Ark. Stat. § 41-2206. MURDER IN SECOND DEGREE. All other murder shall be deemed murder in the second degree. [Act Dec. 17, 1838, § 1 (2nd clause), p. 121; C. 8c M. Dig., § 2344; Pope’s Dig., § 2970.] “Ark. Stat. § 43-2152. MURDER CASES — DEGREE OF OFFENSE FOUND BY JURY. The jury shall, in all cases of murder, on conviction of the accused, find by their verdict whether he be guilty of murder in the first or second degree; but if the accused confess his guilt, the court shall impanel a jury and examine testimony and the degree of crime shall be found by such jury. [Act Dec. 17, 1838, § 1 (3rd clause), p. 121; C. & M. Dig., § 3205; Pope’s Dig., § 4041.]” In Clark v. State, 169 Ark. 717, 276 S. W. 849 (1925), on a not guilty plea, we construed the statute requiring the jury to find whether the offense constituted first or second degree murder to be directory only. We held that where the evidence showed that die murder occurred while the defendant was perpetrating a felony, trial courts could properly instruct the juries to find first degree murder or nothing. However, this court has consistently made a different construction of the act when trial for murder is had on a guilty plea. Upon a plea of guilty to a first degree murder charge, it makes no difference whether the charge is “felony murder” or “premeditated murder” because in each instance, our cases hold, raising the issue on this court’s own motion, that the trial court must submit the issue of the defendant’s guilt to the jury upon both first degree and second degree murder. See Wells v. State, 193 Ark. 1092, 104 S. W. 2d 451 (1937), and Walton v. State, 232 Ark. 86, 334 S. W. 2d 657 (1960). The impractical and inconsistent results arising from our application of the 1838 Act, supra, are readily demonstrated by this record. Here, although the appellant entered a plea of not guilty, he took the witness stand and admitted his involvement in the conspiracy to rob, the killing of Officer Morgan in his presence and that the 30-30 rifle in his possession when he went out of and came back into the house was used to put 30-30 bullets into Officer Morgan’s body. I submit that a plea of guilty would not have admitted more. Are we not then putting form before substance in the application of the statute? Notwithstanding the fact that the majority rely upon the amendment of the information to charge “felony murder” to get around the statutory requirement that the jury be required to find by their verdict whether appellant be guilty of murder in the first degree or second degree, the majority opinion states: “It will be observed that the amendment did not change the nature of the crime charged nor the degree of the offense...” The latter statement was made because of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-1024, supra, providing that “no indictment shall be amended, nor bill of particulars filed, so as to change the nature of the crime charged or the degree of the crime charged.” As I view the record here, appellant without the amendment would have been entitled to the instruction on second degree murder. We so held on identical facts in Bosnick v. State, Supra, and in Bosnick v. State, 248 Ark. 1289, 455 S. W. 2d 688. I cannot be intellectually honest with myself and agree that an amendment to the information and bill of particulars which reriioves the accused’s right to a second degree murder instruction and which permits the trial court to tell the jury to either find him guilty of first degree or turn him loose does not change the nature and degree of the crime involved, Finally, the majority says that the change or amendment of the information complied with that part of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-1024 which requires that: “All amendments and bills of particulars shall be noted of record.” The amendment here made was a verbal motion by the prosecuting attorney and a verbal statement by the trial judge that it was granted. The only record, if it be called a record, was that which the court reporter took down in short hand. If this constitutes a record within the meaning of the statute, I am at a loss to understand why the people, in enacting Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-1024, bothered to write the above quoted requirement into the statute because it is pure surplusage. Furthermore, our law in the graver affairs of life, particularly with respect to last wills and testaments, require that any and all amendments thereto be in writing. As I read our criminal laws they require indictments, informations and bills of particulars to be in writing. Should an amendment to an information be any less formal? When appellant’s mother or my grandchildren ask me why an amendment to an instrument seeking to dispose of a man’s property has to be executed with greater formality than an amendment to an indictment seeking to take his life, I will have to say, “I do not know,” and will further have to admit that the greater formality placed on property over life appears to be a blemish upon that justice which the ordinary citizen expects of the law. For these reasons I would reverse and remand for a new trial because of the trial court’s failure to instruct on second degree murder in accordance with the 1838 Act.