Court Opinion

ID: 9794574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:08:08.688906+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:17:58.804405
License: Public Domain

Dolliver, J.
(dissenting) — Defendant cites as error the failure of the trial court to give his proposed instruction 6 which defined the term "deadly weapon". I agree. The testimony relied upon by the State was that defendant had used a toy pistol. Even with the testimony as to a real gun referred to in the concurrence, the omission of the proposed instruction allowed the jury to find first degree rape could have been committed without a real deadly weapon. This is error.
RCW 9A.44.040(1) provides:
A person is guilty of rape in the first degree when such person engages in sexual intercourse with another person not married to the perpetrator by forcible compulsion where the perpetrator or an accessory:
(a) Uses or threatens to use a deadly weapon . . .
*547RCW 9A.04.110(6) defines a "deadly weapon" as
any explosive or loaded or unloaded firearm, and shall include any other weapon, device, instrument, article, or substance, including a "vehicle" as defined in this section, which, under the circumstances in which it is used, attempted to be used, or threatened to be used, is readily capable of causing death or serious bodily injury[.]
(Italics mine.)
The majority seems to believe a deadly weapon need not actually exist for a person to be convicted of rape in the first degree. I believe it must.
The "gun" in this case was a cap pistol. It is not argued by the majority that the cap pistol was in fact a deadly weapon nor was it. This being so it cannot be a deadly weapon under RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a). RCW 9A.04.110(6) in defining "deadly weapon" for the purposes of the Washington Criminal Code speaks of an instrumentality which "is readily capable of causing death or serious bodily injury". The "threat" to use a "firearm" or "deadly weapon" which does not exist may, in the words of the majority, at page 544, be as "terrifying and effective" as if there were a real weapon. This is not enough under the statute to convict of rape in the first degree. Using the definition of "deadly weapon" provided in RCW 9A.04.110(6), one is only guilty under RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a) if the deadly weapon "is readily capable of causing death or serious bodily injury". (Italics mine.) This is not and cannot be a characteristic of an imaginary or nonexistent deadly weapon.
When the Legislature chooses to impose the same penalty for a crime regardless of whether the deadly weapon actually exists, it has done so. If, for example, defendant had used a cap pistol or something else appearing to be a deadly weapon in a robbery it would have been robbery in the first degree. RCW 9A.56.200(1) provides:
A person is guilty of robbery in the first degree if in the commission of a robbery or of immediate flight therefrom, he:
(a) Is armed with a deadly weapon; or
*548(b) Displays what appears to be a firearm or other deadly weapon . . .
The first degree rape statute does not provide for what "appears to be a . . . deadly weapon". It simply says the perpetrator must " [use or threaten] to use a deadly weapon". RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a). Recently introduced legislation relative to the first degree rape statute again demonstrates an understanding of the difference between a real deadly weapon and something which only appears to be a deadly weapon (RCW 9A.56.200). See Senate Bill 3009, 48th Legislature (1983); House Bill 31, 48th Legislature (1983) (amending RCW 9A.44.040 to include use or threat of use of "what appears to be a deadly weapon" (italics mine)). This confirms the view that read correctly RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a) does indeed require the deadly weapon to be both real and present at the time of the commission of the crime and not simply to be in the imagination of the perpetrator or the victim.
In arriving at its opinion, I believe the majority misperceives the purpose of deadly weapon statutes. They are not to enhance the punishment of the perpetrator of the crime because the presence of a deadly weapon would increase the fear of, e.g., a rape victim (RCW 9A.44.040(1) (a)) or an assault victim (RCW 9A.36.010(1)(a)), but rather because guns and deadly weapons enhance the possibility that serious injury or death would occur to the victim. When the Legislature chose to place the terror or perception of the victim on an equal footing with the actual physical danger to the victim, it did so. RCW 9A.56.200(1)(a), (b).
One final matter: The majority relies heavily on State v. Ingham, 26 Wn. App. 45, 612 P.2d 801 (1980), although it brushes aside the distinction made by the Court of Appeals between Ingham and this case. State v. Hentz, 32 Wn. App. 186, 191, 647 P.2d 39 (1982). I agree with the Ingham court that " [f]irst-degree rape does not require use or display of the weapon. Threat of such use is sufficient." Ingham, at 52. However, the deadly weapon, even though unseen by the victim, must have a physical existence. As the Court of *549Appeals observed:
[I]n Ingham there was evidence from which a jury could have concluded that the assailants were armed with an actual knife. Here, the toy pistol, relied on by the State, is simply not a deadly weapon.
State v. Hentz, supra at 191. It was the State which insisted a toy pistol would be sufficient for its case and resisted an attempt by defendant to obtain an instruction defining "deadly weapon", even though a "deadly weapon" is an element of the crime. A deadly weapon under RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a) may be seen or unseen, but it must be real and have a physical existence. While guilty of first degree robbery, defendant was guilty only of second degree rape.
It is the well established policy of this court to sustain a criminal conviction only when the State proves every element of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., State v. Loucks, 98 Wn.2d 563, 656 P.2d 480 (1983); State v. Shipp, 93 Wn.2d 510, 610 P.2d 1322 (1980); State v. Roberts, 88 Wn.2d 337, 562 P.2d 1259 (1977). An element of the crime of first degree rape is the use, or threat of use, of a deadly weapon. RCW 9A.44.040(1)(a). The State has charged defendant Hentz with first degree rape but has failed to prove the existence of each and every element of that crime. Therefore, I dissent.
Williams, C.J., and Utter and Pearson, JJ., concur with Dolliver, J.
Reconsideration denied June 6, 1983.