Harris v. State
Decision Date | 20 April 1999 |
Docket Number | No. 81,81 |
Citation | 353 Md. 596,728 A.2d 180 |
Parties | Timothy HARRIS v. STATE of Maryland. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Gina M. Serra, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for Appellant.
Mary Ann Ince, Asst. Atty. Gen (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for Appellee.
Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, RAKER, WILNER and CATHELL, JJ.
Appellant was convicted of the offense of carjacking, in violation of Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol., 1997 Supp.), Article 27 § 348A.1 The issue we must decide in this case is whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury that carjacking is not a specific intent crime. We conclude that carjacking is not a specific intent crime, and accordingly, we shall affirm the trial court.
We shall briefly state the facts. On November 26, 1996, Timothy Harris, Jack Tipton and several other friends were playing cards and drinking alcohol at a friend's house. Tipton offered to drive Harris home. Tipton testified that Harris became angry when Tipton refused to go to the District of Columbia, and that Harris forcibly removed Tipton from the car and drove away. Tipton reported the car as stolen.
Appellant was indicted by the Grand Jury for Prince George's County with the crimes of carjacking in violation of Art. 27, § 348A, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in violation of Art. 27, § 342A, and second degree assault in violation of Art. 27, § 12A. At trial, Harris's defense was voluntary intoxication. He testified that he had consumed alcohol and smoked marijuana throughout the evening, and that he "blacked out" after leaving the get-together.
Appellant requested a jury instruction on voluntary intoxication, arguing that he was too intoxicated from drugs and alcohol to form the specific intent required for the offenses of carjacking and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. The court declined to instruct the jury that carjacking required specific intent. The trial court instructed the jury that when charged with an offense requiring specific intent, a defendant cannot be guilty if he was so intoxicated by drugs and/or alcohol that he was unable to form the necessary intent. The court further instructed the jury that the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle was the only offense that required specific intent. As to the offense of carjacking, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:
An individual is guilty of carjacking when that individual obtains unauthorized possession or control of a motor vehicle from another individual in actual possession by force or violence, or by putting that individual in fear through intimidation or threat of force or violence.
The jury found Harris not guilty of the crime of unauthorized taking of a motor vehicle, and guilty of carjacking and assault.
Appellant noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. We granted certiorari on our own motion to address the issue of whether specific intent is an element of the crime of carjacking.
Maryland's carjacking statute, Art. 27, § 348A reads in pertinent part:
The State argues that the plain language of § 348A clearly establishes that carjacking is not a specific intent crime. The State observes that the trial court's carjacking instruction tracked the language of § 348A(b)(1). According to the State, the Legislature's failure to include language which would ordinarily indicate a specific intent requirement refutes Harris's claim that carjacking requires a specific intent to deprive without regard to duration. Rather, the Legislature clearly intended that the offense is committed without any additional deliberate and conscious purpose or design to accomplish a specific and more remote result.
Appellant argues that carjacking requires specific intent "without regard to the intended duration of the deprivation." He argues that carjacking is a type of robbery without the need to prove a specific intent to deprive permanently. Alternatively, he argues that carjacking is the equivalent of an unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, preceded by an assault, battery, or an aggravated assault, and as such, requires the State to prove a specific intent to deprive, without regard to the duration of the intended deprivation. In particular, Appellant argues that carjacking is little more than robbery without the need to prove specific intent to permanently deprive, and the equivalent of unauthorized use preceded by an assault, battery, or an aggravated assault. Appellant maintains that the intent requirement of carjacking is like that of unauthorized use—that an intent to deprive temporarily is the specific intent requirement. Noting that the standard for specific intent is "whether, in addition to the general intent to do the immediate act, it embraces some additional purpose or design to be accomplished beyond that immediate act," Appellant reasons that "[c]arjacking requires that, through force or violence, or a threat of force or violence (the immediate act), a person obtains unauthorized possession or control of a motor vehicle (the purpose beyond the immediate act)."
Generally there are two aspects of every crime—the actus reus or guilty act and the mens rea or the culpable mental state accompanying the forbidden act. Garnett v. State, 332 Md. 571, 577-78, 632 A.2d 797, 800 (1993). Maryland continues to observe the distinction between general and specific intent crimes. Shell v. State, 307 Md. 46, 65, 512 A.2d 358, 366-67 (1986). The distinction is particularly significant when a defendant claims that his voluntary intoxication prevents him from forming the requisite intent to commit a crime. See id. at 65, 512 A.2d at 367 ( ); Wieland v. State, 101 Md.App. 1, 35, 643 A.2d 446, 463 (1994) () It has long been the law in Maryland that while voluntary intoxication is a defense to a specific intent crime, it is not a defense to a general intent crime. See Shell, 307 Md. at 58,512 A.2d at 367 ( ).
Specific intent has been defined as not simply the intent to do an immediate act, but the "additional deliberate and conscious purpose or design of accomplishing a very specific and more remote result." Shell, 307 Md. at 63, 512 A.2d at 366 (quoting Smith v. State, 41 Md.App. 277, 305, 398 A.2d 426, 443 (1979)); see also In re Taka C., 331 Md. 80, 84, 626 A.2d 366, 368-69 (1993); Ford v. State, 330 Md. 682, 702, 625 A.2d 984, 993 (1993); State v. Gover, 267 Md. 602, 606, 298 A.2d 378, 381 (1973). In Shell, we quoted with approval the explanation of specific intent by Judge Moylan, writing for the Court of Special Appeals in Smith v. State, 41 Md.App. at 305-06, 398 A.2d at 442-43:
307 Md. at 62-63, 512 A.2d at 366 (emphasis added). Chief Justice Traynor, writing for the Supreme Court of California, explained the difference between specific intent and general intent crimes:
When the definition of a crime consists of only the description of a particular act, without reference to intent to do a further act or achieve a future consequence,...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Attorney Grievance Commission v. Sheinbein
...the meaning of specific intent in Chen v. State, 370 Md. 99, 111 n. 5, 803 A.2d 518, 524 n. 5 (2002), quoting Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 603, 728 A.2d 180, 183 (1999): "`[S]pecific intent is not simply the intent to do the immediate act but embraces the requirement that the mind be consc......
-
Metheny v. State
...is an exception to the general requirement that the intent to commit a crime accompany a forbidden act. See Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 602, 728 A.2d 180, 182-83 (1999). This exception, however, is justified, in part, because a felon who applies force to neutralize a victim should be held......
-
Higginbotham v. Psc.
...of the statute, see Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Chase, 360 Md. 121, 126, 756 A.2d 987, 990 (2000); Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 606, 728 A.2d 180, 184 (1999); Lewis v. State, 348 Md. 648, 653, 705 A.2d 1128, 1131 (1998); Marriott Employees Fed. Credit Union v. Motor Vehicle Admi......
-
In re Gloria H.
...the words of the statute, see Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Chase, 360 Md. 121, 756 A.2d 987, 990 (2000); Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 606, 728 A.2d 180, 184 (1999); Lewis v. State, 348 Md. 648, 653, 705 A.2d 1128, 1131 (1998); Marriott Employees Fed. Credit Union v. Motor Vehicle......
-
State's Burden of Production As To Elements of the Crime
...one prohibited actus reus. The actus reus is "the what" of the criminal offense. Chow v. State, 393 Md. 431, 464 (2006); Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 600 (1999); Garnett v. State, 332 Md. 571, 577-78 (1993). 2. Mens rea (criminal mental state) elements The mens rea in a criminal case is th......
-
Judicial Exploitation of Mens Rea Confusion, at Common Law and Under the Model Penal Code
...(1998) is a general intent crime despite the statute's requirement of "purposeful[ ]" conduct). [109]. See Harris v. State, 728 A.2d 180, 187 (Md. 1999) (4-3 decision) (holding that carjacking under Md. Ann. Code art. 27, Sec. 348A (1957, 1996 Repl. Vol., 1997 Supp.), is a general intent cr......
-
Actus Reus in the Form of An Affirmative Physical Act
...intent offense under the theory that the intoxication prevented the defendant from forming the requisite intent. See Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 602-03 (1999); but see Md. Code Ann., Crim. Law § 9-406 (voluntary intoxication is not a defense to the crime of escape). Involuntary intoxicati......
-
General Considerations
...in harming the property. All mental states that are not a specific intent mental state are a general intent mental state. Harris v. State, 353 Md. 596, 606 (1999). For an offense with a general intent, the State need prove only that the defendant intended to do the conduct that the law proh......