Edwards v. State

I write to reiterate my dissent in Burnett v. State, 807 So.2d 573 (Ala.Cr.App. 1999), in which I expressed my opinion that Alabama's vehicular homicide statute, § 32-5A-192, Ala. Code 1975, is unconstitutional because the statute allows a citizen to be convicted of a criminal homicide without requiring proof of a culpable mental state amounting to, at least, criminal negligence. This court's effort inBurnett to extrapolate a culpable mental state from the term "unlawfully" is the focus of my disagreement with that opinion. Although the court attempted to graft a guilty scienter onto this…