Court Opinion

ID: 9743690
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:40:30.7009+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:42.786339
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge,
concurring.
While I concur in the majority's opinion upon rehearing to the effect that it denies the Petition for Rehearing, I nevertheless must disagree with its analysis of Jackson v. State (1991) Ind., 575 N.E.2d 617, and Allen v. State (1991) Ind., 575 N.E.2d 615. To be sure, there is language in those cases which carries an implication that no error at all was occasioned by the giving of the instructions there involved, because the instruction given "sufficiently conveyed the state's burden to prove intent to kill." Allen, supra, 575 N.E.2d at 617. Notwithstanding such language, the court in Allen and in Jackson nevertheless clearly held that it was error to give the instruction but it was not such fundamental error as to require reversal absent an objection.
It is possible that the import of both the Jackson and Allen cases are that Spradlin v. State (1991) Ind., 569 N.E.2d 948, Abdul-Wadood v. State (1988) Ind., 521 N.E.2d 1299, and Smith v. State (1984) Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355, are to be given prospective application only and that the more recent cases provide a cautionary directive to trial courts to give appropriate "with intent to kill" instructions in attempted murder cases.
I, otherwise, fully concur in the Opinion upon Rehearing.