People v. Jackson

(Court opinion corrected 7/24/17.) Defendant called 911 and when paramedics arrived he was agitated, nervous, irrational, and very uncooperative, suffering from psychological issues. The paramedics called for police assistance. After Defendant would not cooperate, an officer used his taser on Defendant and when another officer tried to grab him he was kicked in the shins. Defendant was then charged and convicted of battery and resisting arrest. On appeal, Defendant contended he was having a medical emergency and lacked the mental state for either knowingly committing battery or knowingly resisting a peace officer. The evidence was insufficient to support a finding that Defendant had the requisite mental state to commit the crimes. Instead, there was an abundance of evidence that Defendant was not knowingly acting during the incident. Whatever the cause of Defendant’s behavior—epilepsy, drug intoxication, some undiagnosed mental illness, or being tasered 10 times—carried no consequence since the State presented insufficient evidence that Defendant behaved knowingly. As evidence was legally insufficient, Appellate Court reversed Defendant’s convictions and held that the State may not retry him. (NEVILLE, concurring; MASON, dissenting.)