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465 So. 2d 482

Goans v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama

Decided January 8, 1985

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama · decided 1985-01-08

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"Physical injury which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ."”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including 508 So. 2d 295 - Collins v. State, 540 So. 2d 99 - Cowan v. State

“there was no evidence of `serious physical injury' as defined by statute.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 612 So. 2d 1323 - Vo v. State

Relies on 453 So. 2d 1081 - Caine v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1985-01-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently August 2012

11 state decisions

601985199020002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1

¶2Greg Goans was indicted for the first degree assault of Timothy Jenkins in violation of Alabama Code 1975, § 13A-6-20 (a)(3). Sentence was ten years' imprisonment. Although three issues are raised on appeal, only one deserves our attention.

¶3The defendant contends that the State failed to present a prima facie case of first degree assault because there was no proof of "serious physical injury."

¶4The defendant and Royce Dunn together assaulted Jenkins. It is undisputed that Dunn was the one who actually shot Jenkins with a .22 caliber pistol. Jenkins was shot in his right collarbone. He was treated at a hospital and released the same night. The only testimony concerning the severity of the wound came from the victim himself who testified: "My right collarbone. Pieces of the bullet hit at an angle and bounced out. It left little pieces in there and that is what they took out." Jenkins testified the pain was "not all that bad."

¶5"Serious physical injury" is specifically defined by statute. Alabama Code 1975, § 13A-1-2 (9): "Physical injury which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ."

¶6Here, there was no evidence of "serious physical injury" as defined by statute. See Caine v. State, 453 So.2d 1081, 1082 (Ala.Cr.App. 1984). The judgment of the circuit court is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶7REVERSED AND REMANDED.

¶8All Judges concur. *483

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