Utley v. State

I must respectfully dissent. The court of appeals correctly decided this case, and I agree with the reasoning set out in its opinion. I write to state my additional concerns. Under the broad language used in Ark. Code Ann. § 5&emdash;10&emdash;105(b)(1) (Supp. 2003), one might argue that Charles W. Utley may be held criminally hable; however, criminal liability has not been imposed in the past where the mental state of the criminal defendant is unproven. I do not believe that the General Assembly intended that persons be prosecuted criminally based on conclusions of mere inattention as is the…