In an issue of first impression, the Court of Appeals in Morgan v. State, 4 N.E.3d 751 (Ind.Ct.App.
2014), held that the subsection of Indiana’s public intoxication statute that
criminalizes "annoying" another person is unconstitutionally
vague.
Rodregus Morgan was intoxicated
as he slept in a plexiglass bus shelter.
When a police officer awakened Morgan, he smelled alcohol, Morgan was
unsteady on his feet and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Because Morgan was intoxicated and his
behavior was "annoying," the officer arrested him. The Court of Appeals concluded that Ind. Code
§7.1-5-1-3(a)(4) is unconstitutionally vague because it fails
to provide notice to enable ordinary people to understand the prohibited
conduct. It is also unconstitutional
"because it neither requires that a defendant . . . specifically intended
to annoy another person, nor does it employ an objective standard to assess whether
a defendant's conduct would be annoying to a reasonable person."
Because the statute does not require the
defendant to be warned his behavior is annoying, it allows arbitrary and
discriminatory enforcement, as the illegality of conduct is based on "the
subjective feelings of a particular person at any given time." Striking down the term "annoying"
as unconstitutionally vague does not inhibit the execution of the public
intoxication statute, so the remainder of Ind. Code § 7.1-5-1-3(a) stands.
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