Court Opinion

ID: 9658626
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:06:49.775485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:57.272067
License: Public Domain

White, J.,
dissenting.
I agree that in our attempts to understand those amorphous crimes borrowed from the Model Penal Code, i.e., attempted crimes, we have failed to follow the rationale and logic of State v. Lovelace, 212 Neb. 356, 322 N.W.2d 673 (1982), and its successors. We correct that situation in the majority opinion by unequivocally holding that attempt crimes have a parent, but no offspring.
I disagree strongly with the majority that the mature Lovelace, which has served us well, should now be discarded in favor of the perceived superior doctrine of the faceless “majority of courts,” the “cognate” approach. I prefer to call the new approach the stream-of-consciousness lesser-included offense doctrine.
The Iowa Supreme Court, in rejecting the cognate approach, explained the theory behind it:
Under the cognate approach, a defendant may be convicted of a lesser offense that, under the strict statutory-elements approach, is not necessarily committed in the course of committing the greater offense. The lesser offense is related and, hence, “cognate” in the sense that it has several elements in common with the greater offense but may have one or two elements not essential to the greater crime.
State v. Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d 728, 731 (Iowa 1988).
The Iowa court retained its use of the strict statutory-elements approach, finding among other reasons that it offers more clarity, is easier to apply, is more logical, and “better comports with the constitutional requirement for adequate notice of charges than the cognate-evidence and Model Penal Code approaches do.” Id. at 738. The court stated that under its approach, “the charge against the defendant necessarily implies whether and which lesser-included offenses come into play.... With the cognate-evidence and Model Penal *214Code approaches, the defendant must await the evidence before knowing what, if any, lesser-included offenses are implicated.” Id.
The majority’s adoption of the cognate approach allows the determination of lesser-included offenses based on the elements of the crime as charged in the information and the evidence supporting the charge. Looking to the complaint and the facts, one could logically conceive of the following scenario:
Complaint
On or about the 9th day of August, 1990, the defendant, a 17-year-old male, while operating his unregistered automobile at a time when his license was suspended, and after ingesting a quantity of marijuana and alcohol, observed the victim on the sidewalk adjacent, took a pistol from a place under the driver’s seat, and intentionally, deliberately, and with malice aforethought, took aim and shot and killed the victim; all of these acts occurring within the city limits of Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska.
In the application of Lovelace and the Nebraska statutes, the principal charge of first degree murder has as its lesser-included offenses second degree murder and manslaughter.
In the cognate approach (assuming appropriate proof), the trial court on its own motion is authorized to charge as lesser-included offenses of the crime of first degree murder the following: (1) operation of an unregistered automobile, (2) operation of a vehicle during a period of suspension or revocation of a driver’s license, (3) operation of a vehicle without an operator’s license, (4) possession of a controlled substance, (5) minor in possession of alcohol, and (6) carrying a concealed weapon.
By following the cognate approach, this court will allow prosecutors to list any conceivable lesser-included offense on the information, which in turn will force defendants to prepare to defend against each of those crimes. As the U.S. Supreme Court stated in adopting the statutory-elements approach at the federal level:
[T]he elements test is far more certain and predictable in its application than the inherent relationship approach....
*215[It] permits both sides to know in advance what jury instructions will be available and to plan their trial strategies accordingly. The objective elements approach, moreover, promotes judicial economy by providing a clearer rule of decision and by permitting appellate courts to decide whether jury instructions were wrongly refused without reviewing the entire evidentiary record for nuances of inference.
Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 720-21, 109 S. Ct. 1443, 103 L. Ed. 2d 734 (1989).
I dissent.