Korzep v. Superior Court

838 P.2d 1295, 172 Ariz. 534, 103 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 17, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 345
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 24, 1991
Docket1 CA-SA 91-085
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 838 P.2d 1295 (Korzep v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Korzep v. Superior Court, 838 P.2d 1295, 172 Ariz. 534, 103 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 17, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 345 (Ark. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

AMENDED OPINION

GERBER, Presiding Judge.

Petitioner Roberta Korzep seeks special action review of the trial court’s denial of her motion to dismiss or to remand to the grand jury. We accept jurisdiction because of the importance of the statutory issue presented. Because of an error in recounting the procedural history of the case in our earlier opinion, we vacate that opinion and substitute this corrected version for that. The state’s motion to reconsider is granted only in this respect.

FACTS

These facts are those presented in prior court proceedings. Briefly put, petitioner Roberta Korzep (“Roberta”), was the wife of the victim David Korzep (“David”). The couple fought frequently during their marriage. On the night of David’s death, both had been drinking. When they arrived home, a fight ensued. Roberta claims that David grabbed her hair and dragged her. She claims she was afraid that he was going to strangle her. After escaping from him, she ran to the kitchen. When she went to the kitchen, David followed her. She states that he started to hit her again. Taking a knife, she then stabbed him once in the stomach, as she now claims, in order to defend herself and prevent the crime of aggravated assault. Bleeding, he turned away from her and walked down the hallway toward the bedroom. Roberta followed him part way down the hall, aware of the blood on his shirt. She then left their house and went to a neighbor’s house, the knife still in her hand. David bled to death in the hallway of their home.

*536 PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 12,1987, Roberta was indicted on second degree murder. Following the denial of a motion to remand, she petitioned for special action relief. In the first of three already published appellate decisions in her case, the court of appeals ordered a remand because of hearsay statements presented to the grand jury. Korzep v. Superior Court of Yuma County, 155 Ariz. 303, 746 P.2d 44 (App.1987).

After a new indictment issued on February 5, 1988 for voluntary manslaughter, the trial court denied her second motion to remand based on failure to instruct the grand jury on A.R.S. § 13-411. The case proceeded to trial and ended with a manslaughter verdict. At this trial, the court refused a jury instruction on A.R.S. § 13-411 and denied a post-verdict motion for new trial based on this refusal.

After the court of appeals affirmed, see State v. Korzep, 164 Ariz. 175, 791 P.2d 1058 (App.1989), our supreme court reversed the conviction for failure to instruct the trial jury on A.R.S. § 13-411. State v. Korzep, 165 Ariz. 490, 799 P.2d 831 (1990). After the case returned to the trial court, the trial court denied Roberta’s motion to reconsider a remand for failure to instruct the grand jury on A.R.S. § 13-411. From that denial Roberta then filed this special action in this court raising the following issues relating to A.R.S. § 13-411:

1. What is the effect of A.R.S. § 13-411(C)?
2. Would another trial, in light of A.R.S. § 13-411(C), constitute double jeopardy?
3. Should this case be remanded to the grand jury for a new determination of probable cause with A.R.S. § 13-411 being given to the grand jury?

In the face of the state’s waiver argument, we consider these issues for two reasons: (1) the Supreme Court’s Korzep opinion in this same case was issued after Roberta’s prior motion to remand was denied, and thus the court’s partially favorable view of his A.R.S. § 13-411 argument was not then established; and (2) in part, for that reason, the exact issue she now raises regarding A.R.S. § 13-411 was not raised, or even arguable in this form, at the time of her prior special action. We also find no waiver of her argument in this special action because the Supreme Court’s reversal of her conviction and remand places Roberta back in a pre-trial posture.

A.R.S. § 13-m

A.R.S. § 13-411 presently reads as follows:

A. A person is justified in threatening or using both physical force and deadly physical force against another if and to the extent the person reasonably believes that physical force or deadly physical force is immediately necessary to prevent the other’s commission of arson of an occupied structure under § 13-1704, burglary in the second or first degree under § 13-1507 or § 13-1508, kidnapping under § 13-1304, manslaughter under § 13-1103, second or first degree murder under § 13-1104 or § 13-1105, sexual conduct with a minor under § 13-1405, sexual assault under § 13-1406, child molestation under § 13-1410, armed robbery under § 13-1904, or aggravated assault under A.R.S. § 13-1204, subsection A, paragraphs 1 and 2.
B. There is no duty to retreat before threatening or using deadly physical force justified by subsection A of this section.
C. A person is presumed to be acting reasonably for the purposes of this section if he is acting to prevent the commission of any of the offenses listed in subsection A of this section.

Roberta broadly argues that A.R.S. § 13-411(C) creates a conclusive presumption which now grants her a judgment of acquittal. She reads subsection (C) broadly as conclusively warranting her innocence.

The present version of A.R.S. § 13-411 accounts for the novel argument raised in this special action. The statute has two origins, one with the Arizona Criminal Code Commission, the other with subsequent legislative amendments. Most of subsections *537 (A) and (B) were first proposed by the Arizona Criminal Code Commission in 1975.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
838 P.2d 1295, 172 Ariz. 534, 103 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 17, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/korzep-v-superior-court-arizctapp-1991.