Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

554 So. 2d 336

Ex Parte McCree

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided September 16, 1988

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1988-09-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"(5) For a Class B or C felony in which a firearm or deadly weapon was used or attempted to be used in the commission of a felony, not less than 10 years."”

quoted by 9 later decisions, including Ward v. State, Williams v. State

Relies on 477 So. 2d 487 - Holloway v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1988-09-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently December 2011 · most notably 632 So. 2d 503 - Harris v. State (1992), Sockwell v. State (1993)

28 state decisions

2301988199020002010decided

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

¶2I believe that the legislature intended what the statute says: "[I]n a Class B or Class C felony in which a firearm isused or attempted to be used in the commission of a felony, [the sentence shall be] not less than 10 years." (Emphasis added.) The legislature intended to establish a minimum sentence in every case where a firearm is used, or attempted tobe used, in the commission of a Class B or C felony. The *342culpability of the defendant in committing the offense only applies to the guilt phase of the trial, and whether the felony is classified as either a Class A, Class B, or Class C felony. I agree with the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals inHolloway v. State, 477 So.2d 487 (Ala.Crim.App. 1985), that "[t]he only requirement for application of § 13A-5-6(a)(5) is that the jury find that the defendant used a firearm or deadly weapon in the commission of a Class B or C felony." (Emphasis added.)

¶3The effect of this opinion could be to eliminate the minimum sentence provision of § 13A-5-6(a)(5) in most cases involving Class B or C felonies, because many of these felonies do not require that the crime be committed "intentionally." Based on the foregoing, I must respectfully dissent.

¶4TORBERT, C.J., concurs.

/554/so2d/336 · .json · Public domain