464 NE2D 1302 - Davenport v. State

How this case has been cited

Cited by 43 later decisions — most recently April 2018 · most notably Lampkins v. State (1997), Lampkins v. State (1997)

41 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

PRENTICE, Justice,

¶1concurring in result.

¶2I concur in the affirmance of the judgment.

¶3With regard to the sufficiency of the evidence upon the conviction for attempted murder, I am of the opinion that the majority's statement that premeditation is no longer an element of the crime of murder is misplaced but unnecessary to the result. Although murder does not now necessarily encompass intent or premeditation, the crime of "Attempt" does. Smith a/k/a Watford v. State, (1984) Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355.

¶4Notwithstanding the Jury's gratuitous recommendation for leniency, a finding of the necessary element of intent was not negated. The words were mere surplusage and should be treated accordingly. Additionally, the use of the term "unpremeditated nature of the act" in the statement of the Jury obviously meant that the act of shooting was done in haste-without cool reflection-and not as a word of art to denote the element of a crime. To say that one attempted an act but did not intend to do so or did not premeditate it is a contradiction of terms.