O'Brien v. State

In O'Brien v. State, 2002 WY 63, 45 P.3d 225, 231-32 (Wyo. 2002) wherein the defendant was convicted of aggravated assault and battery, the Wyoming Supreme Court stated: "The Commentaries addressing aggravated assault and battery state that this special character of recklessness, or extreme recklessness, is designed to more severely punish battery where the defendant's state of mind would have justified a murder conviction had his victim not fortuitously lived. 211.1(2)(a) cmt. 4, at 189. By adopting the Model Penal Code's term, "recklessly," to justify a lesser punishment for assault and battery, the Wyoming Legislature plainly intended to distinguish between "recklessly" and "recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life" in the same manner as had the Model Penal Code. We, therefore, determine that O'Brien correctly asserts that the jury was not properly instructed when it was provided with the statutory definition of "recklessly" without further proper instruction." The court went on to hold: We hold, therefore, that, in an aggravated assault and battery trial, the jury should be given an instruction defining "reckless under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life" rather than just "reckless" as happened in O'Brien's trial. That definition will provide the statutory definition of reckless but must include language explaining that if the jury determines the defendant acted recklessly, the jury must then determine whether that recklessness rose to the level of "extreme indifference to the value of human life." Id. at 232.