Court Opinion

ID: 9642470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:59:09.648117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:48.286598
License: Public Domain

McMILLAN, Judge
(concurring).
I concur, but reluctantly. Because of the newness of MAI-CR, conceivably attorneys have not become too familiar with the usage of the instructions contained therein. Consequently, and maybe justly so, the majority has excused the state from a literal compliance with MAI-CR 7.02. On the other hand, MAI-CR 7.02 makes no reference to “in which human beings were present” as set forth in paragraph First. Nor is there a reference to “an occupied dwelling” as contained in paragraph Second.
*498Where there are approved MAI-CR instructions applicable in a particular case which the appropriate party requests or the court decides to submit, such instruction should be given, without either additions or deletions, to the exclusion of any other on the same subject matter. While it is true that Order 20.02(e), Use of Instructions and Verdict Forms, P. VIII, provides: “Giving or failing to give an instruction . in violation of this Rule or any applicable Notes on Use shall constitute error, its prejudicial effect to be judicially determined” yet if this practice is encouraged by subjective judicial constructions the exceptions may well become better known than the rules themselves. In other words, if we, the judiciary, constantly give currency to this practice, the value and benefits to be derived from the adoption of pattern instructions and the time and efforts extended by our committee of the Missouri Bar on Criminal Pattern Instructions will both be lost.