Court Opinion

ID: 9668280
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:08:23.07585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:44.315101
License: Public Domain

Shanahan, J.,
dissenting.
Both the majority opinion and the concurrence contain a misinterpretation of the statutory definition of recklessly as well as a misreading of State v. Hoffman, 227 Neb. 131, 416 N.W.2d 231 (1987), and incorrectly arrive at absolutes, rendering the majority opinion and concurrence absolutely incorrect concerning the nature and proof of reckless conduct as an element of third degree assault, the predicate unlawful act in Kistenmacher’s conviction for manslaughter.
While the majority opinion correctly concludes that Kistenmacher’s conviction is governed by principles enunciated in Hoffman, the majority actually disregards the Hoffman principles in disposing of this appeal. On the other hand, the *328concurrence initially embraces the standard stated in Hoffman, but later disapproves language in the Hoffman standard and ultimately posits that there is no reversible error in excluding Kistenmacher’s evidence offered regarding the “element of subjectivity” emphasized in the concurring opinion.
Both the majority and concurring opinions express the misperception that Hoffman negates a subjective element in the recklessness characterized in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-109(19) (Reissue 1985). The majority goes even further and holds that the test for recklessness is “purely objective.”
Rather than repeating the Hoffman passage stated in both the majority and concurring opinions, one sees the clear meaning of Hoffman in the following excerpts which appear in immediate proximity to the Hoffman passage contained in the majority opinion and concurrence:
According to the definition contained in § 28-109(19), recklessly . .. means conduct in which an actor disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious bodily injury to another, which risk, in view of the nature and purpose of the actor’s conduct and circumstances known to the actor, involves a gross deviation from a standard of conduct which a law-abiding person would have observed in the actor’s situation....
When an element of a crime involves existence of a defendant’s mental process or other state of mind of an accused, such elements involve a question of fact and may be proved by circumstantial evidence. [Citation omitted.] Evidence established that Hoffman drank a considerable quantity of alcoholic beverage (root beer schnapps); drove his automobile on the city streets of Lincoln after consuming that alcohol; was conscious, alert, and conversing with hospital personnel after the fatal collision; and discussed the “Implied Consent Advisement Form” with Officer Bassett. Those facts provided the trial court with sufficient circumstantial evidence from which to draw the conclusion that Hoffman was able to make a conscious choice to drive his automobile, rather than refrain from operating his vehicle, and thereby *329disregarded the substantial risk of bodily injury to the public____
(Emphasis supplied.) State v. Hoffman, supra at 138, 140, 416 N.W.2d at 237-38. Therefore, to determine whether conduct is reckless, as characterized in § 28-109(19), the Hoffman court used a test which requires a finding that a defendant made a “conscious choice” to “disregard” a substantial risk of harm to another.
Only very rarely, however, will there be direct evidence that a defendant knew and appreciated the risk involved in the defendant’s particular conduct alleged to be criminally reckless. “When an element of a crime involves existence of a defendant’s mental process or other state of mind of an accused, such elements involve a question of fact and may be proved by circumstantial evidence.” State v. Hoffman, supra at 140, 416 N.W.2d at 237. The Hoffman court recognized that a defendant’s state of mind necessary for recklessness may be proved by (1) the defendant’s acknowledged awareness and appreciation of the serious danger or risk resulting from the defendant’s chosen course of conduct, or (2) the defendant’s knowledge of attendant circumstances sufficient to justify a reasonable inference that the defendant actually realized the danger involved in the questioned conduct. In either case, the trier of fact is required to determine the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the alleged reckless conduct. A factual finding that a reasonable person would have perceived the danger, but that the defendant, for some reason, failed to perceive the danger, would not support a finding of reckless conduct under Hoffman. While conduct contrary to or inconsistent with a reasonable person’s conduct may constitute negligence, such conduct is not reckless as the term is defined in § 28-109(19).
Whether a defendant has recklessly acted is determined by the two-part test contained in § 28-109(19):
Recklessly shall mean acting with respect to a material element of an offense when any person disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that, considering the nature and *330purpose of the actor’s conduct and the circumstances known to him, its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor’s situation.
The preceding statute is, perhaps, more comprehensible if the statute’s two sentences are treated as distinct components of a test for recklessness. First, the defendant must have realized that a risk existed, and must have “disregarded” that risk. Obviously, to “disregard” a risk, a person must be aware that the risk existed in the first instance. Consequently, appreciation of risk is the subjective element of recklessness. If the fact finder determines that the defendant appreciated the risk inherent in prospective conduct, and yet the defendant chose the conduct which resulted in the risk, then the “nature and degree” of the resultant risk must be evaluated, a process which relates to the second or objective part of the recklessness characterized by § 28-109(19). In this second component of the test, the fact finder must ask whether the risk was of such nature and degree that, when the defendant’s appreciation of the risk is considered, disregarding the risk constituted a “gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person [a reasonable person] would observe in the actor’s situation.”
This two-part test to determine recklessness is by no means novel. The Model Penal Code § 2.02, comment 3 at 238 (1985), states:
Ultimately, then, the jury is asked to perform two distinct functions. First, it is to examine the risk and the factors that are relevant to how substantial it was and to the justifications for taking it. In each instance, the question is asked from the point of view of the actor’s perceptions, i.e., to what extent he was aware of risk, of factors relating to its substantiality and of factors relating to its unjustifiability. Second, the jury is to make the culpability judgment in terms of whether the defendant’s conscious disregard of the risk justifies condemnation.... [T]he question is whether the defendant’s disregard of the risk involved a gross deviation from the standards of conduct that a law-abiding person would have observed in the actor’s situation.
*331As noted in Treiman, Recklessness and the Model Penal Code, 9 Am. J. Crim. L. 281,299-300 (1981):
Both recklessness and negligence require the existence or creation of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that circumstances exist or that a result will occur. In addition, the trier of fact must make an objective, after the fact, determination of the character of the risk. Further, there must be a gross deviation from the standard of behavior (conduct/care) of a fictional person (law-abiding/ reasonable).
The one crucial difference between recklessness and negligence is that recklessness has a subjective component. In this sense it is more like knowledge than negligence. With regard to negligence, the actor fails to perceive the risk. It is the failure to perceive the risk that is judged by an objective standard. With respect to recklessness there is subjective perception or awareness of the risk, but the actor consciously disregards the risk. It is this conscious disregard that is to be judged by the objective standard.
In jurisdictions which have a statutory definition of recklessly similar to the definition in § 28-109(19), none apply the “purely objective” test adopted by this court’s majority but, quite to the contrary, recognize a subjective element in reckless conduct and utilize a test which requires that a defendant appreciate a risk in order to disregard the risk. See, People v. Gates, 140 A.D.2d 994, 529 N.Y.S.2d 663 (1988); State v. Wilson, 145 Wis. 2d 143, 426 N.W.2d 56 (1988); State v. Koonce, 731 S.W.2d 431 (Mo. App. 1987); State v. Flewelling, 524 A.2d 765 (Me. 1987); State v. Malines, 11 Conn. App. 425, 527 A.2d 1229 (1987); State v. Allen, 128 N.H. 390, 514 A.2d 1263 (1986); Dalton v. State, 488 So. 2d 13 (Ala. Crim. App. 1986); Edgmon v. State, 702 P.2d 643 (Alaska App. 1985); Harmon v. State, 260 Ark. 665, 543 S.W.2d 43 (1976).
By today’s decision, the majority erroneously equates criminal recklessness, which requires “disregard” of a risk, with civil negligence, and thereby ignores the basic difference between negligent and reckless conduct — a negligent person fails to perceive a risk which should have been perceived, while a reckless person disregards a risk perceived by that person. In *332prescribing the elements of third degree criminal assault reflected in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-310(l)(a) (Reissue 1985), the Legislature specified the three mental states required for a criminal assault: intent, knowledge, or recklessness. Under the definition of recklessly expressed in § 28-109(19), a negligent actor cannot be guilty of a third degree assault as a predicate for a manslaughter conviction. See Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-305 (Reissue 1985). According to the majority, a person is reckless as the result of a failure to perceive a risk which a reasonable person would have perceived, but such conclusion by the majority disregards the explicit language of § 28-109(19) and Hoffman.
While this court may disagree on policy grounds with a definition of recklessness which requires the defendant’s appreciation of a risk, the Legislature, nevertheless, has exercised its power to statutorily define crimes. “When the Legislature has spoken, it is not up to this court to disagree with its decision on a purely policy basis.” Arant v. G. H, Inc., 229 Neb. 729, 731, 428 N.W.2d 631, 632 (1988). To conform with Nebraska precedent, consistent with the better reasoned decisions of courts in other jurisdictions having a statutory definition of recklessness similar to the definition in § 28-109(19), I would hold that, to be guilty of violating a statute proscribing reckless conduct, the defendant must appreciate the substantial risk of injury inherent in a particular course of conduct, and then consciously embark on such conduct in disregard of that risk.
Turning to the evidential question in this appeal, in Kistenmacher’s offer of proof, Dr. Radecki, a physician and psychiatrist qualified to give an opinion regarding Kistenmacher’s mental state, testified that, at the time of the shooting, Kistenmacher was “desensitized to the great risk of that behavior [pointing a loaded gun at someone] and didn’t realize the — by any means, the great dangers that he was taking.” Dr. Radecki explained that “desensitization” is a state of mind in which an individual “markedly underestimate[s] the seriousness of violence as well as overestimating the dangers of society.” According to Dr. Radecki, Kistenmacher “realized there was some danger.” Hence, the concurrence concludes *333that, although exclusion of the offered testimony was error, the exclusion was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, apparently because the physician’s opinion was somewhat equivocal.
“Relevant evidence means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Neb. Evid. R. 401 (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 27-401 (Reissue 1985)). See, also, State v. Robertson, 219 Neb. 782, 789, 366 N.W.2d 429, 434 (1985) (“Only relevant evidence is admissible, and evidence which is not relevant is not admissible”); State v. Oliva, 228 Neb. 185, 188, 422 N.W.2d 53, 55 (1988) (“[E]vidence is probative [and therefore relevant] if it tends in any degree to alter the probability of a material fact”). Kistenmacher’s appreciation of the risk in his chosen course of conduct, pointing the gun at another, was, as noted above, a “fact... of consequence to the determination of the action . . . .” Whether we, as judges, believe or disbelieve the opinion expressed by Dr. Radecki, his opinion rendered the existence of Kistenmacher’s appreciation of the risk less likely and was, therefore, relevant. See State v. Williams, 224 Neb. 114, 396 N.W.2d 114 (1986) (credibility of witnesses and weight to be given testimony are matters for the jury). Kistenmacher’s offer of proof contained evidence which, if believed, tended to negate an element of the crime charged, namely, Kistenmacher’s disregard of a substantial risk.
“Error may not be predicated upon a ruling which admits or excludes evidence unless a substantial right of the party is affected . . . .” Neb. Evid. R. 103(1) (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 27-103(1) (Reissue 1985)). However, I am unable to characterize the error in excluding Dr. Radecki’s testimony as error which is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In the trial of a criminal case, whether an error in admitting or excluding evidence reaches a constitutional dimension or not, an erroneous evidential ruling results in prejudice to a defendant unless the State demonstrates that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Watkins, 227 Neb. 677, 419 N.W.2d 660 (1988); State v. Lenz, 227 Neb. 692, 419 N.W.2d 670 (1988). If there is some incorrect conduct in a jury trial which, on a review of the entire record, did not materially *334influence the jury in its verdict adverse to a substantial right of the appellant, the error is harmless. State v. Watkins, supra.
Dr. Radecki’s offered opinion was the only evidence regarding Kistenmacher’s state of mind at the time of the shooting. Furthermore, Dr. Radecki’s opinion had direct bearing on Kistenmacher’s guilt, inasmuch as a third degree assault by reckless conduct was the predicate “unlawful act” required for Kistenmacher’s manslaughter conviction.
In the present case, the substantial right violated was Kistenmacher’s right to present Dr. Radecki’s testimony which tended to establish Kistenmacher’s innocence. See, Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 87 S. Ct. 1920, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1019 (1967); Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 690-91, 106 S. Ct. 2142, 90 L. Ed. 2d 636 (1986) (“exclusion of . . . exculpatory evidence deprives a defendant of the basic right to have the prosecutor’s case encounter and ‘survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing’ ”).
Therefore, I would reverse Kistenmacher’s conviction and remand the cause for a new trial, allowing Kistenmacher to present testimony regarding his appreciation of the substantial risk inherent in his chosen course of conduct, the subjective element required for criminally reckless conduct.