Court Opinion

ID: 9714654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:42:16.760948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:27.439852
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I dissent. In its well-reasoned opinion the appellate court correctly reversed defendant’s attempt murder convictions and its judgment should be affirmed. The majority opinion is grounded on the assertion that section 5—2 of the Criminal Code “means that where one aids another in the planning or commission of an offense, he is legally accountable for the conduct of the person he aids; and that the word ‘conduct’ encompasses any criminal act done in furtherance of the planned and intended act.” (57 Ill.2d at 497.) To an extent this interpretation is of course correct, but as will be demonstrated neither the statute nor the cases cited in the opinion support the conclusion reached by the majority. In pertinent part section 5—2 provides: “A person is legally accountable for the conduct of another when: * * * (b) The statute defining the offense makes him so accountable; or (c) Either before or during the commission of an offense and with the intent to promote or facilitate such commission, he solicits, aids, abets, agrees or attempts to aid, such other person in the planning or commission of the offense. ***” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 38, par. 5—2. It is clear that defendant’s accountability cannot stem from section 5—2(b) for the simple reason that the statute defining the offense of attempt murder does not malee him so accountable. In support of its position the majority cites People v. Armstrong, 41 Ill.2d 390, and quotes at length from People v. Hubbard, 55 Ill.2d 142. These cases are clearly not in point. They involved defendants charged with murder and fall under section 5—2(b) for the reason that section 9—1(3) of the Criminal Code creates the “felony murder” classification and obviates the need of proof of intent. It should be further noted that People v. Tarver, 381 Ill. 411, People v. Rybka, 16 Ill.2d 394, and People v. Johnson, 35 Ill.2d 624, cited in and relied upon in Armstrong were also murder cases and are not relevant here. The majority also quotes from Hamilton v. People, 113 Ill. 34, and People v. Cole, 30 Ill.2d 375. In Hamilton there was a common design to burglarize a watermelon patch, one of the co-defendants was armed, all were present and took part in the fight which followed their being accosted by the farmer whose melons they were stealing and the court applied a common design theory. The rationale of Cole is the basis on which the appellate court affirmed, correctly, defendant’s conviction on the burglary charge but neither Cole nor Hamilton can be read so as to stretch the statute to cover the facts of this case. The Committee Comments to section 5—2(c) inter alia state: “Subsection 5—2(c) is a comprehensive statement of liability based on counseling, aiding and abetting and the like, which includes those situations that, at common law, involve the liability of principals in the second degree and accessories before the fact. It will be observed that liability under this subsection requires proof of an ‘intent to promote or facilitate *** commission’ of the substantive offense. Moreover, ‘conspiracy’ between the actor and defendant is not of itself made the basis of accountability for the actor’s conduct, although the acts of conspiring may in many cases satisfy the particular requirements of this subsection.” S.H.A., ch. 38, par. 5-2, p. 288. It should be noted that emphasis is placed on the requirement of proof of an “intent to promote or facilitate *** commission of the substantive offense” and the Criminal Code provides: “A person intends or acts intentionally or with intent, to accomplish a result or engage in conduct described by the statute defining the offense, when his conscious objective or purpose is to accomplish that result or engage in that conduct.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 38, par. 4—4. The substantive offense involved is attempt murder and section 8—4(a) of the Code provides that the requisite elements of the offense of attempt are the intent to commit a specific criminal offense and the doing of an act which constitutes a substantial step toward the commission of that offense. The gist of the crime of assault with intent to commit murder, the statutory predecessor of attempt murder, was the specific intent to take life (People v. Palmer, 31 Ill.2d 58; People v. Coolidge, 26 Ill.2d 533), and the gist of the crime of attempt murder as defined in the Criminal Code is the specific intent to take life. As pointed out by the appellate court, had either of the intended victims died, the provisions of section 9—1(3) of the Criminal Code would have served to make the defendant accountable, but the attempt statute contains no such provision. Section 1—3 of the Criminal Code provides that no conduct constitutes an offense unless made so by the Code or another statute and in People v. Eagle Food Centers, Inc., 31 Ill.2d 535, at page 539, the court said: “By well settled principles of law, a criminal or penal statute is to be strictly construed in favor of an accused, and nothing is to be taken by intendment or implication against him beyond the obvious or literal meaning of such statutes. (People v. Kirkrand, 397 Ill. 588; People v. Lund, 382 Ill. 213.) This is so, according to Sutherland, Statutory Construction, 2d ed., vol. II, sec. 520, because ‘the penal law is intended to regulate the conduct of people of all grades of intelligence within the scope of responsibility,’ and it is therefore ‘essential to its justice and humanity that it be expressed in language which they can easily comprehend; that it be held obligatory only in the sense in which all can and will understand it.’ And apart from the principle of strict construction, we are, as in the case of civil statutes, bound to the rules which require us to give effect to a legislative intention expressed in clear and unambiguous terms and forbid us from altering the plain meaning of the words employed by forced or subtle construction. ” I submit that on this record the defendant was not proved guilty of attempt murder. The evidence is uncontradicted that when his companions embarked on the burglary they were unarmed and that he was not inside the tavern when the shot was fired. Again, when the shot was fired at the pursuing officer, defendant was in the automobile, and under the circumstances neither occurrence is shown to be a consequence of any action of the defendant from which the requisite specific intent could be inferred. I agree with the appellate court that section 5 — 2(c) does not impose liability for all consequences which flow from participation in the initial criminal venture and that there is no proof here of the requisite specific intent, and would affirm the judgment.