Court Opinion

ID: 9654946
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:55:18.169568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:14.897736
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, dissenting. I respectfully but vigorously disagree with the majority decision concerning its disposition and reversal of the capital felony murder conviction regarding appellant’s killing of Sandra Warren. Although it can be said that the appellant entered the Warren’s house to kill James Warren, the proof at the same time precludes that he entered the house with the intention to murder Sandra. Cindy Warren testified that the appellant saw her and her father, James, when they were departing James’ truck in front of the Warren house. Appellant shot at Cindy and then his “attention automatically went to my father,” as her father was running to the house. I fail to see any logic in the majority’s attempt to distinguish the instant case from either the holding in People v. Miller, 32 N.Y.2d 157, 297 N.E.2d 85, 344 N.Y.S.2d 342 (1973), or Blango v. United States, 373 A.2d 885 (D.C. 1977). As was true with the defendants in those cases, the appellant here entered an occupiable structure to commit a crime other than the one with which he was convicted. In this respect, appellant entered the Warren house with the ostensible purpose of killing James Warren—which the majority concedes was a burglary because appellant entered an occupiable structure with the intent to commit an offense punishable by imprisonment. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-2002 (Repl. 1977). Again, as were the situations in Miller and Blango, appellant, while in the course and furtherance of committing this burglary (felony), murdered James’ wife, Sandra—a second and distinct crime. The rationale underlying the Miller and Blango decisions is that the legislature, in including burglary as one of the enumerated felonies as a basis for felony murder, recognized that persons within domiciles are in greater peril from those entering the domicile with criminal intent than persons on the street who are being subjected to the same criminal intent. Thus, the burglary statutes prescribe greater punishment for a criminal act committed within the domicile than for the same act committed on the street. In the instant case, appellant’s entry into the secluded and confined homestead of the Warrens in his pursuit and effort to kill James also enhanced greatly the prospects that he would kill anyone else trapped within those confines. I believe the rationale underlying our State’s felony murder statute is sound, and the facts of this case implore its application, at least as to Sandra Warren. I also disagree with our court’s holding in Hill v. State, 289 Ark. 387, 713 S.W.2d 233 (1986), insofar as that decision interpreted Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-1303(3) (Repl. 1977). In my view, this court placed a much too restrictive interpretation on the words “previously committed” when deciding what prior violent crimes can be used in establishing aggravating circumstances for sentencing purposes in capital felony murder cases. In Hill, we explained that the reason for section (3) is to allow the state to show that the defendant has a character for violent crimes or a history of committing such crimes. This court then parlayed that reasoning to arrive at the conclusion that section (3) applies to crimes not connected in time or place to the killing for which the defendant has just been convicted. Such reasoning and logic engrafts a restriction on the employment of section (3) that simply is not there. Here, I have no problem reaching the conclusion that appellant’s acts warranted the jury’s consideration of the plain language used in section (3)—that he previously committed another felony, an element of which was the use or threat of violence to another person or created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another person. Undisputably, appellant attempted to murder Cindy Warren outside the Warren house just moments before he entered the home where he killed both James and Sandra Warren. The majority holdings here and in Hill raise more questions than they answer. For example, if appellant had attempted to shoot Cindy an hour ear-Her—somewhere on the grounds but outside the house—could section (3) be employed? What would be the result if appellant’s prior acts had happened the day before he entered the Warren house to kill James? In short, at what point in time and place may a defendant’s prior violent acts be used to justify the usage of section (3)? We become entrapped in our own web, so-to-speak, when we add language to section (3) that is not there. The purpose, I submit, of section (3), is merely to permit a jury to consider a defendant’s violent nature, as he had previously applied it towards others, regardless of when and where such violence occurred. For the reasons stated, I would affirm William Parker’s conviction and find no error in giving the instruction on previously committed felonies. Hays, J., joins in this dissent.