Fowler v. State
| Decision Date | 24 August 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 1085-S-433,1085-S-433 |
| Citation | 526 N.E.2d 1181 |
| Parties | Bobby Wayne FOWLER, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender, Richard Ranucci, Sp. Asst. to the Public Defender, Indianapolis, for appellant.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Amy Schaeffer Good, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
This is a direct appeal following conviction of the crime of voluntary manslaughter, a class B felony for which appellant received a twenty (20) year sentence. While two issues are raised for review, it is only necessary to address one; whether it was reversible error to instruct the jury that appellant had the burden of proving his defense of intoxication beyond a reasonable doubt.
The State tendered and the trial judge gave the following instruction to the jury:
Defense counsel objected to the giving of the instruction asserting the burden of proof was upon the State to disprove the intoxication defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Appellant tendered the following instruction which was refused by the trial court:
"If you find, from all the evidence, that the State has failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Defendant was not so intoxicated, that he lacked the ability to appreciate the ethical quality of his actions or to control those actions, then you must find the Defendant not guilty of the crime of murder."
What becomes apparent here and in review of other cases is that there still exists a degree of confusion as to the parameters of the "defense" of intoxication. Under a chapter entitled "Defenses Relating to Culpability" appears I.C. Sec. 35-41-3-5:
"Intoxication
Sec. 5. (a) It is a defense that the person who engaged in the prohibited conduct did so while he was intoxicated, if the intoxication resulted from the introduction of a substance into his body:
(1) without his consent; or
(2) when he did not know that the substance might cause intoxication.
(b) Voluntary intoxication is a defense only to the extent that it negates an element of an offense referred to by the phrase 'with intent to' or 'with an intention to'."
It seems that the legislature intended to create two statutory classifications of intoxication, one a defense which would appropriately be entitled "involuntary intoxication" and the other a limited defense entitled "voluntary intoxication". The confusion apparent in this case and in others surrounds the voluntary intoxication defense. In Terry v. State (1984), Ind., 465 N.E.2d 1085 this court held that subsection (b) of I.C. Sec. 35-41-3-5 was void and of no effect. This is not to say that voluntary intoxication cannot act as a defense to a crime. Rather, evidence of voluntary intoxication is admissible on the issue of mens rea. As Justice Givan wrote in Terry, supra:
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Sanchez v. State
...the part of the defendant, evidence of intoxication is permitted to negate the existence of that element of the crime." Fowler v. State, 526 N.E.2d 1181, 1182 (Ind.1988). Cf. McClain v. State, 678 N.E.2d 104, 106 (Ind.1997) (holding as a matter of statutory law that "evidence of automatism ......
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...Ind. 604, 606, 382 N.E.2d 170, 172. Street interprets the holdings in Powers v. State, (1989), Ind., 540 N.E.2d 1225, and Fowler v. State (1988), Ind., 526 N.E.2d 1181, as placing the burden of proof of intoxication on the State. We disagree. In Powers, our Supreme Court found error in an i......
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...requisite intent (knowing or intentional) required for murder. This was an accurate statement of the law. See, e.g., Fowler v. State, 526 N.E.2d 1181, 1182 (Ind.1988). The jury was also instructed that the State had the burden to prove Conner knowingly or intentionally killed each victim. V......
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Weaver v. State
...doubt in the mind of a rational trier of fact that the accused entertained the requisite specific intent.' " Fowler v. State (1988), Ind., 526 N.E.2d 1181, 1182 (quoting Williams v. State (1980), 273 Ind. 105, 402 N.E.2d 954). Here, Weaver clearly met this burden, as there is ample evidence......