State v. Pierce

PART I. INTRODUCTION.

By affirming the assault convictions, the majority have tortured and mutilated the assault statutes; they have construed the essential mental state “knowingly” (which should be “purposely or knowingly”) so that it means nothing more than conduct amounting to criminal negligence; they have ignored the jury instructions which defined “knowingly” in four ways; they have ignored fundamental appellate rules designed to assure the reliability and integrity of the trial process; they have ignored the fundamental rule which requires the court to instruct on a lesser-included…