Title: State v. Buckingham

State: south-dakota

Issuer: South Dakota Supreme Court

Document:

240 N.W.2d 84 (1976) STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Bruce F. BUCKINGHAM, Defendant and Appellant. No. 11586. Supreme Court of South Dakota. March 25, 1976. Harry W. Christianson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Pierre, for plaintiff and respondent. William J. Janklow, Atty. Gen., Max A. Gors, Asst. Atty. Gen., Pierre, on the brief. Walter J. Bradsky, of Bangs, McCullen, Butler, Foye & Simmons, Rapid City, for defendant and appellant. WOLLMAN, Justice. Defendant was found guilty by a jury on a charge of driving while intoxicated. He appeals from the judgment of conviction, contending that the trial court should not have admitted the results of a breathalyzer test because the investigating officer had failed to place him under formal arrest, had failed to request that he submit to such a test, and had failed to advise him of his right to refuse to submit to such test and of the consequences of such refusal. We reverse. At approximately 12:45 a. m., July 28, 1974, Officer M. R. Collins of the South Dakota Highway Patrol received a call to investigate an accident on South Dakota *85 Highway 34 near St. Onge, Lawrence County, South Dakota. Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Collins observed defendant standing outside his damaged pickup truck. In response to the officer's questions, defendant stated that he had struck a bridge abutment after he had swerved to the right side of the road to avoid an oncoming vehicle in his lane of travel. Officer Collins observed that defendant was confused in his directions, smelled of intoxicants, and was unsteady on his feet. Based upon these observations, Officer Collins told defendant that in his opinion defendant had had too much to drink to be driving and advised defendant that he and the officer would go to Deadwood for a breathalyzer test. Officer Collins then took defendant from the scene of the accident to Deadwood, where the breathalyzer test was administered. Although Officer Collins testified that he advised defendant of his Miranda rights at the police station in Deadwood before the test was administered, the record is clear that he did not request that defendant submit to the breathalyzer test, and he did not advise him that he had the right to refuse to submit to such test, nor of the consequences of such refusal. In fact, Officer Collins testified that: We pass quickly over defendant's contention that because he was never placed under arrest he should not have been required to submit to the breathalyzer test. SDCL 23-22-1 provides that, "Arrest is the taking of a person into custody that he may be held to answer for a public offense." SDCL 23-22-9 provides that: Although it is true that Officer Collins may not have told defendant in so many words that he was placing him under arrest at the scene of the accident on a charge of driving while intoxicated, it is clear from the evidence that Officer Collins had probable cause to arrest defendant on such a charge and that he in fact took the defendant into custody at the scene and transported him to the Deadwood police station. Although law enforcement officers should comply closely with the requirements of the statute, SDCL 23-22-9, and clearly inform a criminal suspect that he is being placed under arrest and on what charge, the failure to make such a statement did not vitiate the legal effect of the de facto arrest here where the officer in fact took defendant into his physical custody and control at the scene of the accident and made it clear to defendant that he was being taken to Deadwood for a breathalyzer test. State v. Thunder Horse, 85 S.D. 76, 177 N.W.2d 19; Application of Kiser, 83 S.D. 272, 158 N.W.2d 596. Defendant contends that because Officer Collins failed to advise him of his right to refuse the breathalyzer test and of the consequences of such refusal as set forth in SDCL 32-23-11 and 32-23-12, the results of the breathalyzer test should not have been admitted in evidence. SDCL 32-23-10 provides that: SDCL 32-23-11 provides that: SDCL 32-23-12 provides that: SDCL 32-23-13 provides in part that: In State v. Batterman, 79 S.D. 191, 110 N.W.2d 139, the defendant driver, who had consented to submit to a blood test after being advised by the arresting officer that he had the right to refuse to submit to the test, contended that because the arresting officer had failed to advise him of the consequences of such refusal the results of the test should not have been admitted at his trial. The pertinent part of the implied consent law as then in existence was substantially similar to the last paragraph of SDCL 32-23-10, supra. In rejecting defendant's contention, this court stated that: Some three years later, however, without citing the Batterman case this court stated that: In the case of Beare v. Smith, 82 S.D. 20, 140 N.W.2d 603, wherein the evidence revealed that the defendant driver had been fully informed of the consequences of a refusal to submit to a blood test, this court recognized the apparent conflict in the above cited statements in the Batterman and Chmelka cases and went on to say that: *87 In State v. Spry, 87 S.D. 318, 207 N.W.2d 504, we cited the Batterman case for the proposition that: We conclude that the failure of the arresting officer to comply with the requirements of SDCL 32-23-10 rendered the test results inadmissible at defendant's trial. To the extent that the holding in State v. Batterman, supra, is to the contrary, that decision is overruled. In reaching this result, we look, as did the court in Batterman, to the letter of the law. It is difficult to see how the legislature could have been more specific in setting forth the procedure that arresting officers must follow when they seek to utilize the powerful evidence-gathering mechanism conferred upon them by SDCL 32-23-10, the implied consent statute. True, our statute does not expressly state that the failure of the officer to comply with the procedural steps will render the test results inadmissible, as do some implied consent statutes, see, e.g., State v. Granville, Me., 336 A.2d 861. Implicit in our implied consent statute, however, is the right to refuse to submit to a test and, a fortiori, the requirement that a choice be made between submitting to the test or suffering the consequences of such refusal. Beare v. Smith, supra; Blow v. Commissioner, 83 S.D. 628, 164 N.W.2d 351. Also implicit in the implied consent law is the assumption that the choice to be made is of considerable importance to the arrested driver. Although it may be true that to some drivers the loss of their license for a period of one year would be a penalty more severe than being convicted of the offense of driving while intoxicated, see Holland v. Parker, D.S.D., 354 F. Supp. 196, there no doubt are some who would rather suffer the loss of their license for one year than to suffer the ignominy of a conviction for driving while intoxicated, together with the adverse economic consequences such a conviction entails. If the offense of driving while intoxicated is considered serious enough to warrant the constitutional guarantee of a jury trial, Parham v. Municipal Court, 86 S.D. 531, 199 N.W.2d 501, then surely it is serious enough to require law enforcement officers to comply with the statutorily mandated procedural steps as a prerequisite to the admissibility of the results of a chemical test conducted pursuant to the implied consent law. By holding that law enforcement officers must comply with the provisions of the implied consent statute, we do not intend in any way to impose new or onerous requirements to the conscientious, diligent application of the implied consent law. Rather, we seek only to enforce the requirements that the legislature has already imposed, and in doing so we reaffirm what this court said in Beare v. Smith, supra: that our implied consent statute was adopted to combat the menace and danger caused by drunken drivers, and that the "* * * threat to person and property from drunken drivers using the public highways is not an area for timid or tolerant application of traffic laws." 82 S.D. at 26, 140 N.W.2d at 607. Indeed, we assume that in the vast majority of cases our law enforcement officers are faithfully complying with the statute at the time they arrest motorists whom they suspect of driving while under the influence of intoxicating beverage and that the instant case represents but an aberrational departure from the norm of police conduct. Also, we do not mean to say by our holding herein that there may not be situations where literal compliance with the requirements *88 of SDCL 32-23-10 will not be necessary, say, for example, in the case of an unconscious or disabled driver, or in the case of the obstreperous or erudite inebriate who spurns the arresting officer's attempted recitation of the right to refuse a test and of the consequences of such refusal. We leave those cases for another day. We note that we are not alone in holding that the requirements of the implied consent law must be complied with as a precondition to rendering the test results admissible. For example, the Iowa implied consent statute, I.C.A. § 321B.3, requires the arresting officer to make a written request of the arrested driver to submit to a chemical test. The failure of the officer to present such a written request renders the test results inadmissible. State v. Jensen, Iowa, 216 N.W.2d 369. As recently explained by the Iowa Supreme Court: Although we need not decide whether we would require the same literal compliance with the provisions of our law as the Iowa Court does with respect to the Iowa statute, the total failure of Officer Collins to advise defendant in accordance with our implied consent law, in the absence of any factors making compliance with the statute impossible or unnecessary, rendered the test results inadmissible. To hold otherwise would be to read the last paragraph of SDCL 32-23-10 out of the statute. The state contends, however, that the implied consent law aside, the holding in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S. Ct. 1826, 16 L. Ed. 2d 908, renders the test results admissible. It is true that in State v. Werlinger, supra note 1, and State v. Spry, supra, we indicated that in the light of the Schmerber decision, the results of a blood test would be constitutionally admissible despite a defendant's refusal to submit to the test. Indeed, in the Spry case, we stated, after first holding that the defendant had voluntarily consented to a blood test after being advised of his implied consent law rights, that "* * * a defendant's consent or refusal is irrelevant to the admission of the results of the blood test if the test is taken pursuant to a valid arrest." 87 S.D. at 325, 207 N.W.2d at 508. Upon further reflection, however, we deem that statement to be too broad an application of the Schmerber doctrine inasmuch as it fails to consider the implications of our implied consent law as a limitation on the constitutional authority of law enforcement officers to withdraw blood from an arrested driver. Granted that our implied consent statute antedated the decision in Schmerber, in contrast to the California implied consent statute, see Blow v. Commissioner, supra, 83 S.D. at 633, 164 N.W.2d at 353 n.1, the statute still stands and on its face imposes procedural requirements above the constitutional safeguards enunciated in the Schmerber case. Other courts have interpreted their applicable statutes as constituting a limitation upon the Schmerber doctrine. In discussing the Schmerber case with respect to the Illinois consent statute (which required actual consent and did not contain an implied consent provision), the Illinois Supreme Court stated, "Thus, absent a more limiting statutory provision, the taking of a blood sample does not require the consent of the donor." People v. Todd, 59 Ill. 2d 534, 545, 322 N.E.2d 447, 453. The *89 Illinois Court then went on to hold that because the Illinois statute required actual consent, a chemical test taken in the absence of such consent was not rendered admissible by the Schmerber case. Likewise, the Colorado Supreme Court has stated that: In holding inadmissible the results of a blood test performed on a blood sample taken over defendant's protest, the Oregon Court of Appeals stated: See also State v. Stover, Or., 531 P.2d 258. For an apparently contrary holding, see People v. Superior Court, 6 Cal. 3d 757, 100 Cal. Rptr. 281, 493 P.2d 1145, which has been interpreted by a lower court as authorizing law enforcement officers to obtain and utilize chemical analyses pursuant to Schmerber notwithstanding the failure of the officers to comply with the requirements of California's implied consent statute. See People v. Brannon, 32 Cal. App. 3d 971, 108 Cal. Rptr. 620, and cases cited therein. We hold that SDCL 32-23-10 imposes requirements beyond those mandated by the Schmerber case. To hold otherwise would be to permit law enforcement officers to render SDCL 32-23-10 nugatory at their whim. If the legislature desires that a motorist arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated shall no longer have the right to choose between consenting to a test and losing his license, then presumably the legislature will say so in terms as clear as it used in spelling out a motorist's rights under SDCL 32-23-10. There is certainly nothing in the amendments adopted in response to the decision in Holland v. Parker, supra, that indicates any such intention on the part of the legislature. See, e.g., SDCL 32-23-11, as amended by Ch. 195, § 13, S.L.1973. To the extent that our decisions in State v. Werlinger and State v. Spry, supra, express views contrary to those expressed herein with respect to the admissibility of test results in driving while intoxicated cases, those decisions are overruled.[2] We note that in the Werlinger case the defendant had consented to the test (but see State v. Bosanco, 87 S.D. 605, 213 N.W.2d 345), and the Spry case involved a charge of second degree manslaughter under the provisions of SDCL 22-16-21. We need not decide here, nor did we need to in the Spry case, whether compliance with SDCL 32-23-10 is required as a condition precedent to the admission of test results in a prosecution under SDCL 22-16-21 or whether compliance with the requirements *90 of Schmerber will suffice to render the results admissible.[3] The trial court should not have admitted the results of the breathalyzer test over defendant's objection. Accordingly, the judgment of conviction is reversed. DUNN, C. J., and COLER, J., concur. WINANS, J., dissents. WINANS, Justice (dissenting). I am dissenting from the majority opinion for reasons herein set forth. I do not, however, dissent from the majority opinion so far as the holding on the arrest issue. I agree there was a valid arrest and that to me is the key point on the issue of the use of the breathalyzer test on the charge of driving while intoxicated. I do not accept as true the statement in the majority opinion that defendant was not requested to submit to the breathalyzer test, because the officer did tell defendant that he (defendant) had had too much to drink to be driving and advised defendant that he and the officer would go to Deadwood for a breathalyzer test. The officer did not "advise him that he had the right to refuse to submit to such test, nor of the consequences of such refusal." This is somewhat similar to State v. Batterman, 79 S.D. 191, 195, 110 N.W.2d 139, 141, where this Court said "[t]he defendant was informed that he had a right to refuse to submit." In our case he was not so advised. The Court further said, "Hence, whether the legislature intended an express consent to be invalid, if received in the absence of an explanation of the penalty attached to a refusal to submit, is the narrow question before us." In our case the defendant was not advised of the penalty. Our case is therefore somewhat like Batterman, supra, and somewhat different. We have a valid arrest and a lack of explanation by the officer. In Batterman no question appears relative to the arrest procedure, and a partial explanation given by the arresting officer. In both cases the charge is DWI. The conviction in Batterman was affirmed. The majority opinion states that three years later, without citing Batterman, this Court stated: I believe in Chmelka v. Smith. I have no quarrel with it. In Chmelka the proceeding was upon a petition for determination whether driver's permit was subject to suspension or revocation for violation of Implied Consent Law. It is plain that the Court said it was, but also found that the explanation had been made and dismissed the petition. There was no need to cite Batterman. Unlike Batterman, this was not a criminal action, and in Chmelka the Court going no further than upholding the consequence the statutes provided where the officer might not make them known to the suspected drunk driver. For all we know Chmelka may or may not have been tried on the DWI. It is possible, though speculative, he may have been tried and found not guilty of DWI, or just the reverse. Chmelka is also authority for the following views as to the rights and privileges of driving. Beare v. Smith, 82 S.D. 20, 140 N.W.2d 603, is consistent with Batterman, supra, and with Chmelka, supra. At least it does not uphold the doctrine we are invited to by the majority opinion in Buckingham. The action in Beare v. Smith is a proceeding to review revocation of driver's license and that is all. It plainly holds that such an action is "separate and distinct" from a criminal trial. It even cites Batterman to the effect that results of a blood test were held admissible in the criminal prosecution although the officer "did not explain the penalty attached to a refusal to submit." In State v. Spry, 87 S.D. 318, 207 N.W.2d 504, we said that SDCL 32-23-10 In a footnote we cite Spry was a criminal prosecution and we said "The issue before the federal court in Holland was the right to revoke Holland's license under the circumstances. This is not the issue in our case." Then most importantly we held, The Holland v. Parker, supra, case was an attempt to revoke a license to drive for failing to submit to the blood test. Parenthetically we have since amended our statutes to take care of the objections made in Holland. The three judge Federal Court stated in their opinion: It also quoted from Schmerber, Id. at 769-770, 86 S. Ct. at 1835, 16 L. Ed. 2d at 917. Among other things the Court in Holland concluded that the The question in Schmerber v. State of California, 1966, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S. Ct. 1826, 16 L. Ed. 2d 908; was concerned with the admissibility of a blood sample analysis where such blood had been withdrawn despite defendant's refusal, on the advice of his counsel, to consent to the test. Defendant had been arrested at a hospital while receiving treatment for injuries suffered in an accident involving the automobile that he had apparently been driving. At the direction of a police officer a blood sample was then withdrawn from defendant's body by a physician at the hospital. It would make this already too long dissent, even longer to analyze Schmerber, and it had vigorous dissents. However, the Court allowed the analysis of the blood sample, even under such circumstances, admitted in evidence. It simply held that defendant's rights under the Constitution had not been violated. For instance, it held that his claim of privilege under the Fifth Amendment was not violated. It held that the privilege protects an accused only from being compelled to testify against himself, or otherwise provide the State with evidence of a testimonial or communicative nature, and that the withdrawal of blood and use of the analysis in question did not involve compulsion to these ends. Quoting further from Schmerber: SDCL 32-23-11 provides: There is no language in this section which would make the chemical analysis in our case not permissible evidence in the criminal action. The officer told him he was going to take him to Deadwood for a breathalyzer test. What the officer failed to tell him, and what defendant contends, is he wasn't advised of his right to refuse the breathalyzer test, and the consequences of such refusal. The consequences as I see it are contained in SDCL 32-23-10 and 32-23-11 and that has to do with the revocation of the person's driving license, and not to any privilege to drive while he is drunk on the public highways of the State. I believe that by the operation of a vehicle the defendant should be deemed to have given his consent subject, of course, to his right to refuse and have his right or privilege to drive taken from him. This must be especially so where we violate no constitutional right of his. In summary I would hold that the breathalyzer results are admissible evidence in the DWI trial. The arrest was lawful and the implied consent law is sufficient to justify the test, with or without defendant's consent. This is consistent with Schmerber at the federal level and with Spry in our state. It is also consistent with Holland. I would not create a new exclusionary rule of law under the facts of this case. It is not true that the last paragraph of SDCL 32-23-10 places a restriction on the authority of law enforcement officers to give a breathalyzer test on those lawfully arrested for a violation of SDCL 32-23-1, nor is there any constitutional provision to the contrary. It can only be said, on the contrary, that the last paragraph of SDCL 32-23-10 only places a restriction upon the authorities whereby they cannot use Defendant's refusal, or his lack of being informed of his right of refusal and the results of such refusal if he makes one, to take a test as evidence sufficient to trigger the one year license suspension. [1] A contention similar to the one raised by the defendant in the instant case was apparently not advanced in City of Sioux Falls v. Ugland, 79 S.D. 134, 109 N.W.2d 144, or in State v. Werlinger, 84 S.D. 282, 170 N.W.2d 470, wherein it was held the defendants had expressly consented to submit to the test. The record does not admit of such a finding in the instant case, however, and because the officer did not advise defendant of his right under SDCL 32-23-11 to refuse to consent to the test, defendant's failure to invoke his right of refusal cannot be deemed as constituting consent under the provisions of SDCL 32-23-13. [2] We do not mean to overrule that portion of the Spry decision that holds that defendant Spry's consent was obtained after he had been informed of his implied consent law rights and that it was not necessary for the law enforcement officers to advise him that someone had been killed in the accident that led to his arrest. [3] See State v. Stover, supra, 531 P.2d at 266 n.10, for a discussion of the amendment to the Oregon implied consent statute that apparently permits test results not obtained in compliance with the implied consent law to be introduced in cases other than prosecutions for driving while intoxicated.