Title: State v. Larue

State: hawaii

Issuer: Hawaii Supreme Court

Document:

722 P.2d 1039 (1986) STATE of Hawaii, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rickey LARUE, Defendant-Appellant. No. 10838. Supreme Court of Hawaii. August 1, 1986. *1040 Susan Barr, John M. Tonaki, on brief, Deputy Public Defenders, Honolulu, for defendant-appellant. Candace Kay Andersen, Arthur E. Ross, Deputy Pros. Attys., Honolulu, for plaintiff-appellee. Before LUM, C.J., and NAKAMURA, PADGETT, HAYASHI and WAKATSUKI, JJ. PADGETT, Justice. This is an appeal from a conviction for rape in the second degree (HRS § 707-731) and three counts of sexual abuse in the first degree (HRS § 707-736). For the reasons stated below, we reverse and remand for a new trial. Appellant raises two contentions. One, that a remark by the prosecutor to a witness in the presence of a jury that "[i]n the light of certain technicalities, unfortunately you won't be able to render an opinion . . ." violated his right to due process under Article I, section 5 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Two, that a juror's statement, heard by seven jurors during deliberations, as to the reliability of testimony by children as to sexual molestation at a very early age, expressly based upon the juror's own personal experience with such an *1041 event at such an age, deprived him of his right to a trial by an impartial jury under Article I, section 14 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. We find it necessary only to consider the contention that the statement of jury foreperson Chung as to her own experience at the age of three, and the ability of a child to remember such an experience, violated appellant's right to an impartial jury under Article I, section 14 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii. At the trial, the central question was the reliability of the three minors' statements with respect to their alleged sexual molestation by the appellant. The statement by the jury foreperson occurred during jury deliberations. The testimony taken with respect thereto was from juror Kerr and from foreperson Chung. Juror Kerr testified: Foreperson Chung testified as follows: Tr. at 252-53. Tr. at 256. Tr. at 260. Regardless of which version of what foreperson Chung said is accepted, the fact remains that foreperson Chung was vouching for, and attempting to secure the acceptance by the jury of, the reliability of the statements of the minor complainants as to their sexual molestation by appellant, based not upon evidence in the record, or their appearance on the stand, but upon her own similar personal experience and recollection thereof. Jurors are, of course, entitled in determining even a criminal case, to draw upon their general experience in life. What was done here by the foreperson was entirely different. Here, the crucial issue was being decided, at least by the foreperson, on the basis of a singular, and undoubtedly traumatic, personal experience closely paralleling the alleged crimes. Compare El Paso Electric Co. v. Cannon, 128 Tex. 613, 99 S.W.2d 907 (1937); 58 Am.Jur.2d, New Trial § 87 (1971). Had foreperson Chung revealed the experience, and her recollection thereof, during the voir dire, there can be no question that she would have been subject to a challenge for cause, because it is clear that, given the central issue of reliability of the children's statements in this case, a person with such an experience and recollection thereof cannot, no matter how hard he or she tries, really be an impartial juror. We do not doubt that foreperson Chung's failure to reveal that experience and recollection during voir dire was innocent, and inadvertent. The fact, however, that she brought it out to the other jurors during deliberation makes clear that her judgment on the issue was based on the particular incident in her own past, and her recollection thereof, and that she therefore was not, in this case, impartial. Moreover, it is impossible to say that beyond a reasonable doubt, the seven jurors who heard the remark were not influenced thereby in reaching their verdict. HRE Rule 606 provides: The Commentary to Rule 606(b) quotes from the Advisory Committee on the federal Rules of Evidence as follows: Under HRE Rule 606(b), we cannot consider the jurors' testimony as to the effect of the improper statement upon them. We can only consider whether such a statement was made (which is undisputed), and *1043 whether, given that statement, we can say that appellant had a trial before an impartial jury. We conclude that he did not. Defense counsel, at the trial, did not move for a mistrial at the time the statement came to light. The failure to so move placed the trial judge in a difficult predicament because, under the holding of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Mayo v. Attorney General, 692 F.2d 595 (1982) and the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in Mayo v. Attorney General, 528 F. Supp. 833 (D.Haw.1981), had the court granted a mistrial absent such a motion, there would have been a substantial risk that the federal courts would later hold that a new trial placed the appellant in double jeopardy. By not moving for a mistrial, defense counsel, in effect gambled that if an unfavorable verdict was returned, we would notice the violation of appellant's constitutional right to an impartial jury under the plain error rule. HRPP 52(b); HRAP 49(a)(1).[1] Because the right to an impartial jury in a criminal trial is so fundamental to our entire judicial system, we do notice plain error here. We do not, however, condone the tactics used by trial counsel in failing to move for a mistrial. Fortunately, instances of this nature do not frequently occur, but it may well be that, in similar situations in the future, we will feel required to take some action with respect to such conduct by then trial defense counsel. Reversed and remanded for a new trial. [1] This case is unlike Bachran v. Morishige, 52 Haw. 61, 469 P.2d 808 (1970), and Medeiros v. Udell 34 Haw. 632 (1938), in two respects. First, it is a criminal case and second, the misconduct of the juror was promptly called to the trial court's attention even though no mistrial motion was made.