Court Opinion

ID: 9844465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:03:16.686675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:35.638343
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
specially concurring:
The majority concludes that the defendant was not denied his right to a unanimous verdict when, despite his timely objection, the court submitted the case to the jury for a general verdict instead of utilizing a verdict form that would have required the jury to specify the manner in which the aggravated robbery was committed. Although I disagree with this conclusion, I believe that the trial court’s ruling constituted harmless error, and therefore concur in the judgment of the court.
The trial court instructed the jury pursuant to section 18-4-302, 8 C.R.S. (1978), that aggravated robbery can be committed in alternative ways, involving different acts and different culpable mental states.1 The defendant objected to this instruction, and requested that the district attorney choose one theory of prosecution, or, in the alternative, that the verdict form require the jury to designate the manner in which the crime was committed if the jury should arrive at a verdict of guilty. Both of these requests were denied by the trial court. In reaching this decision, the court interpreted unspecified recent cases from this court as holding that a jury need not reach a unanimous verdict on a particular manner of commission of any offense. Under this interpretation, only a verdict reflecting that all jurors agree that the defendant committed the offense one way or the other is necessary. This view has been adopted by the majority. I disagree with this reading of our cases.
In People v. Ledman, 622 P.2d 534 (Colo.1981), and People v. Taggart, 621 P.2d 1375 (Colo.1981), we addressed this issue. In both cases, however, we noted that the defendant had failed to object during the proceedings to an instruction inviting a general verdict, and under those circumstances held that a general instruction on the necessity of unanimity was sufficient. Implicit in those decisions is the principle that a defendant has a right to request a verdict form that identifies the method of commission of the crime, at least where the alternative methods encompass conceptually distinct and different combinations of material acts and culpable mental states. In the case now before us, the defendant made such a timely request, and the trial court erred in refusing to grant it.
The defendant was charged with commission of aggravated robbery in alternative ways which, although not necessarily mutually exclusive under the facts of this case, involve combinations of conduct and mental culpability elements that are conceptually distinct and different from each other. First, he could have been found guilty based on a jury determination that he was armed with a deadly weapon and intended, if resisted, to kill, maim or wound another person. § 18-4-302(a), 8 C.R.S. (1978). Second, the defendant could have *1105been found to have committed aggravated robbery because he knowingly wounded or struck another person with a deadly weapon. § 18-4-302(b), 8 C.R.S. (1978). Finally, the defendant’s guilt could have been bottomed on a determination that he knowingly put a person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury by the use of force, threats, or intimidation with a deadly weapon. § 18-4-302(b), 8 C.R.S. (1978). The second and third methods of elevation of the crime of robbery to the more serious offense of aggravated robbery involve acts additional to the mere possession of a deadly weapon required under the first method. The first method requires specific intent, a more culpable mental state than the knowing conduct required to support conviction under the second and third.2
It is implicit in Ledman and Taggart that the defendant was entitled to submission of special verdict forms to the jury upon timely request. Under the circumstances of this case, I believe that, in order to have found the defendant guilty of aggravated robbery, the jury should have been required to agree unanimously upon the essential acts and mental state upon which their verdict was based. By holding otherwise, the majority greatly dilutes the unanimous jury verdict right guaranteed to the defendant by section 16-10-108, 8 C.R.S. (1978), and Crim.P. 23(a)(8) and 31(a)(3).
In reaching this conclusion, I am aware that there are decisions from other states that would permit the sort of patchwork verdicts I would find impermissible. See, e.g., People v. Sullivan, 173 N.Y. 122, 65 N.E. 989 (1903). I believe, however, that the better reasoned approach is to be found in Judge Wisdom’s opinion in United States v. Gipson, 553 F.2d 453 (5th Cir. 1977), reversing a conviction because of a trial court instruction to the jury that they could convict if all agreed that the defendant was guilty of the offense charged even if in disagreement as to the acts of the defendant upon which their conclusion of guilt was predicated. As the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals there stated:
Like the “reasonable doubt” standard, which was found to be an indispensable element in all criminal trials in In re Winship, 1970, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368, the unanimous jury requirement “impresses on the trier of fact the necessity of reaching a subjective state of certitude on the facts in issue”. 397 U.S. at 364, 90 S.Ct. at 1072, 25 L.Ed.2d at 375 (footnote omitted). The unanimity rule thus requires jurors to be in substantial agreement as to just what a defendant did as a step preliminary to determining whether the defendant is guilty of the crime charged. Requiring the vote of twelve jurors to convict a defendant does little to insure that his right to a unanimous verdict is protected unless this prerequisite of jury consensus as to the defendant’s course of action is also required (footnote omitted).
553 F.2d at 457-58; see generally Note, Right to Jury Unanimity on Material Fact Issues: United States v. Gipson, 91 HARY.L.REV. 499 (1977).
Notwithstanding my disagreement with the majority concerning the general verdict form issue, I agree that the judgment of conviction should be affirmed because the evidence of the defendant’s guilt as to all charged methods of committing aggravated robbery is overwhelming. Therefore, the trial court’s ruling on this issue must be considered harmless error. See United States v. Pavloski, 574 F.2d 933 (7th Cir. 1978).
I am authorized to say that Justice DU-BOFSKY and Justice NEIGHBORS join in this special concurrence.

. The relevant manners in which aggravated robbery can be committed are set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of section 18-4-302, which provide that:
A person who commits robbery is guilty of aggravated robbery if during the act of robbery or the immediate flight therefrom:
(a) He is armed with a deadly weapon with intent, if resisted, to kill, maim, or wound the person robbed or any other person; or
(b) He knowingly wounds or strikes the person robbed or any other person with a deadly weapon or by the use of force, threats, or intimidation with a deadly weapon knowingly puts the person robbed or any other person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury....

. Unlike the child abuse offense discussed in People v. Noble, 635 P.2d 203 (Colo.1981), the charged methods of commission of the crime in question here, at least in part, "involve alternative forms of culpability or conduct which are so discrete and independent that, as a practical matter, a verdict of guilty to one alternative reasonably could be interpreted as exclusive of the other.” 635 P.2d at 211.