Title: State v. Fuller
Citation: 374 N.W.2d 722
Docket Number: C3-83-2002
State: Minnesota
Issuer: Minnesota Supreme Court
Date: October 11, 1985

374 N.W.2d 722 (1985) STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, Appellant, v. Gary Curtis FULLER, Respondent. No. C3-83-2002. Supreme Court of Minnesota. October 11, 1985. *723 Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, David J. Melban, Asst. City Atty., Duluth, for appellant. Robert E. Lucas, Duluth, for respondent. Peter W. Gorman, Monte M. Miller, MN Trial Lawyers Assn., C. Paul Jones, Mr. Jack Nordby, Minneapolis, John Henry Hingson, III, National Assn. of Criminal *724 Defense Lawyers, Oregon City, OR, Amicus Curiae. Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc. PETERSON, Justice. Defendant, Gary Curtis Fuller, was charged in county court with three misdemeanors. Two attempts to try him ended in mistrials because of prejudicial testimony by the alleged victim during direct examination by the prosecutor. Defendant unsuccessfully moved for a dismissal of all charges, claiming that further prosecution was barred by the double jeopardy provisions of the United States and Minnesota Constitutions. Defendant then obtained a writ of prohibition from the court of appeals, based on that court's interpretation of the double jeopardy clause of the Minnesota Constitution. We reverse and remand to the trial court. On March 14, 1983, defendant was charged in county court with three misdemeanors: assault in the fifth degree, Minn. Stat. § 609.224, subd. 2 (1984), criminal damage to property, Minn.Stat. § 609.595, subd. 2 (1984), and driving after suspension of his license, Minn.Stat. § 171.24 (1984). The charges stemmed from a February 1983 incident reported by a woman with whom defendant had lived in 1978 and with whom he had a son. On November 7, 1983, the matter came on for trial. Before trial commenced, both parties stipulated (1) that at the time of the incident defendant's driver's license had been suspended and (2) that defendant was aware of the suspension. As a part of the stipulation, the court ruled that other evidence regarding these facts was inadmissible. The stipulation was read to the impaneled jury just before the prosecutor gave his opening statement. The state's first witness was the alleged victim. She was a reluctant witness, having sought unsuccessfully to persuade the prosecutor to dismiss the charges, which were based on her complaint. After several minutes of direct examination, she and the prosecutor engaged in the following exchange concerning her acceptance of a ride from defendant: Defense counsel moved for a mistrial, and the trial court granted the motion. Two weeks later, on November 21, 1983, a new jury was impaneled. The following exchange occurred out of the hearing of the jury: Before the jurors were sworn, defense counsel informed the court that his wife, who had been summoned for jury duty but dismissed from this case, had spoken during a break with one of the jurors who had been selected to hear defendant's case. Because this discussion had been unrelated to the case, however, neither the prosecutor nor the judge at that time viewed the incident as warranting more than a general cautionary instruction to the jury. As in the first trial, the jurors were read the stipulation as to defendant's suspended driver's license. The prosecutor once again called the alleged victim as his first witness. During her testimony, the following exchange occurred: Defendant again moved for a mistrial. The prosecutor opposed this, saying: The court again declared a mistrial, citing both the testimony of the witness and the contact between defense counsel's wife and the juror. Defense counsel then moved to dismiss the case, claiming that further prosecution was barred by the double jeopardy clauses of the United States and Minnesota Constitutions. The trial court denied this motion, stating: The court of appeals granted a writ of prohibition barring further prosecution. It recognized that under the federal constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, the trial court correctly denied the motion to dismiss because the prosecutor's elicitation of the inadmissible evidence was not intentional or willful. The court of appeals concluded, however, that the prosecutor's conduct in eliciting the evidence was "gross negligence constituting bad faith" and that under the double jeopardy clause of the Minnesota Constitution further prosecution should be barred. State v. Fuller, 350 N.W.2d 382, 386 (Minn. App.1984). Both the United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution prohibit putting a person twice in jeopardy for the same offense. The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides, in relevant part, "No person shall * * * be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." The Minnesota Constitution provides, in Article 1, Section 7, that "[n]o person * * * for the same offense shall be put twice in jeopardy of punishment." A person is in jeopardy and the constitutional provisions attach as soon as a jury is sworn. State v. McDonald, 298 Minn. 449, 452, 215 N.W.2d 607, 608-09 (1974). When a criminal trial is terminated over a defendant's objection, the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution bars a second trial unless there was a "manifest necessity" that the first trial be terminated. Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 672, 102 S. Ct. 2083, 2087, 72 L. Ed. 2d 416 (1982). However, if a trial is terminated at the defendant's request, the double jeopardy clause does not bar a second trial unless the mistrial resulted from governmental misconduct intended to provoke the mistrial request. Id. at 673-79, 102 S. Ct. at 2088-91. The trial court found that the prosecutor did not willfully or intentionally elicit any inadmissible evidence. Since that finding is not clearly erroneous, we conclude, as did the court of appeals, that the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution does not bar a third trial. The court of appeals, however, gave a broader reading to the scope of the protection provided by the double jeopardy clause of the Minnesota Constitution which, as we said, reads for all practical purposes identical to the federal clause. It is axiomatic that a state supreme court may interpret its own state constitution to offer greater protection of individual rights than does the federal constitution. Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 81, 100 S. Ct. 2035, 2040, 64 L. Ed. 2d 741 (1980); Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 719, 95 S. Ct. 1215, 1219, 43 L. Ed. 2d 570 (1975); see also Wegan v. Village of Lexington, 309 N.W.2d 273, 281 n. 14 (Minn.1981); O'Connor v. Johnson, 287 N.W.2d 400, 405 (Minn.1979); State v. Olsen, 258 N.W.2d 898, 907 n. 14 (Minn. 1977); State v. Oman, 261 Minn. 10, 21, 110 N.W.2d 514, 522-23 (1961). Indeed, as the highest court of this state, we are "`independently responsible for safeguarding the rights of [our] citizens.'" O'Connor, 287 N.W.2d at 405 (quoting People v. Brisendine, 13 Cal. 3d 528, 551, 119 Cal. Rptr. 315, 330, 531 P.2d 1099, 1114 (1975)). State courts are, and should be, the first line of defense for individual liberties within the federalist system.[1] This, of course, does not mean that we will or should cavalierly construe our constitution more expansively *727 than the United States Supreme Court has construed the federal constitution. Indeed, a decision of the United States Supreme Court interpreting a comparable provision of the federal constitution that, as here, is textually identical to a provision of our constitution, is of inherently persuasive, although not necessarily compelling, force. We do not believe that this is an appropriate case in which to decide whether the double jeopardy clause of the Minnesota Constitution gives a criminal defendant greater protection than the federal constitution against retrial following a mistrial provoked by prosecutorial misconduct. This is because the defendant in this case is clearly not entitled to relief under any reasonable alternative to the rule recognized by the United States Supreme Court in Kennedy. Looked at in the worst possible light, the prosecutor was merely negligent in asking the question that elicited the evidence that defendant always drove without a license. Given the fact that the record indicates that the prosecutor had warned the witness against referring to defendant's prior acts of driving without a license, the prosecutor had no reason to expect that his question would elicit the inadmissible evidence. Significantly, defense counsel did not object to the question, only to the answer. Also significantly, the trial court suspected that the witness was "deliberately prolonging the affair by doing these things, by blurting out these things." Further, the trial court based its mistrial ruling not just on the witness' answer but also on the contact that defense counsel's wife had with one of the jurors. In short, whether we were to adhere to the test recognized in Kennedy or were to adopt some reasonable alternative to it, we would conclude, as we do now, that a retrial of defendant will not violate the provision of the Minnesota Constitution protecting defendant against being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense. Reversed and remanded. KELLY, Justice (concurring specially). I concur in the result. WAHL, Justice (dissenting). I respectfully dissent. Whether or not the action of the prosecutor rises to the level of willful or intentional conduct which triggers the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution as a bar to Fuller's third trial on the charged misdemeanor offense, Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 673-79, 102 S. Ct. 2083, 2088-91, 72 L. Ed. 2d 416 (1982), this court is not precluded and should not be inhibited from exercising what Justice Brennan termed "the independent protective force of state law." Brennan, State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights, 90 Har.L.Rev. 489, 491 (1977). Justice Hans Linde of the Supreme Court of Oregon understood the nature of that force, writing that state constitutional guarantees were "meant to be and remain genuine guarantees against misuse of the state's governmental powers, truly independent of the rising and falling tides of federal case law both in method and in specifics." State v. Kennedy, 295 Or. 260, 666 P.2d 1316, 1323 (1983). The purpose of the double jeopardy provision of the Minnesota Constitution is to protect a defendant in a criminal case from a second trial for the same offense, not to punish an official for intentional misconduct. As this court emphasized in State v. Thompson: 241 Minn. 59, 62, 62 N.W.2d 512, 516 (1954) (emphasis in original). The majority finds this an inappropriate case in which to decide whether the double jeopardy clause of the Minnesota Constitution gives a criminal defendant greater protection than the federal constitution against retrial after a mistrial has been provoked by prosecutorial misconduct because, in the majority's view, there is no reasonable alternative to federal rule in *728 Kennedy under which the defendant in this case would be entitled to relief. This view misperceives the nature and extent of the harm done to this defendant and this court's power under the Minnesota Constitution to craft a reasonable standard to remedy such harm. Three times this defendant took time off work, left his home in the Twin Cities, and traveled one hundred and fifty miles to Duluth to be tried on three misdemeanor offenses, fifth-degree assault, criminal damage to property, and driving after suspension. At the first trial, the prosecution and defense stipulated that at the time of the incident, the defendant's license to drive had been suspended and he was aware of the suspension. After ordering the prosecution not to go into the defendant's prior record or the fact that he had been in jail, the court read the stipulation to the jury. The prosecutor asked the state's first witness, after several minutes of testimony, when she and the defendant had discussed whether or not he had a license to drive. This question concerned the very facts to which the parties had stipulated. The witness replied "I just asked how he could drive around the day he got out of jail or being locked up * * *" The defendant's motion for a mistrial was granted. At the second trial, two weeks later, the parties' stipulation regarding the defendant's license revocation and his awareness of that revocation was again accepted by the court. The court asked the prosecutor if he had prepared the witness who had made the prejudicial statement and ordered him, under the circumstances, not to go into "anything about prior driving or prior knowledge of the defendant about his driving privilege." In spite of this warning, during examination of the same first witness, the prosecution asked: In response to this direct question, the witness said she knew Fuller did not have a driver's license and she knew he always drove without one. This answer led to a second mistrial on defendant's motion. In light of the stipulation, the only fact regarding the defendant's driving the prosecutor needed to establish by this witness was that he had, indeed, driven the car that evening. Yet, the prosecutor deliberately asked the witness whether she suspected there was some difficulty with the defendant's driving legally. A reasonable prosecutor would expect a witness to answer such a question with exactly the answer she gave. This question and the answer it elicited provoked the second mistrial.[1] It is not contended that "`every time a defendant is put to trial before a competent tribunal he is entitled to go free if the trial fails to end in a final judgment.'" State v. McDonald, 298 Minn. 449, 452, 215 N.W.2d 607, 609 (1974) (quoting Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 688, 69 S. Ct. 834, 837, 93 L. Ed. 974 (1949)). The public interest in convicting the guilty would be frustrated if retrial were barred when a mistrial was dictated by "manifest necessity," such as a hung jury. There is agreement, however, that in some instances, the prosecutor's actions have so unfairly prejudiced the defendant's chances of acquittal that the defendant has no choice other than a mistrial motion. The disagreement comes over the standard required to bar retrial under double jeopardy protection in such instances. The Kennedy "intent" standard now required by the United States Supreme Court under the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution inadequately protects the objectives sought to be furthered by the double jeopardy provision of the Minnesota Constitution. Under the "intent" standard, where a defendant requests a *729 mistrial, retrial is barred only where the governmental conduct in question is intended "`to goad the [defendant] into requesting a mistrial.'" Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. at 673, 102 S. Ct. at 2088 (citing United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611, 96 S. Ct. 1075, 1081, 47 L. Ed. 2d 267 (1976)). This standard uses the federal double jeopardy provision to deter prosecutorial misconduct rather than protect the defendant, which is the purpose of Minnesota's double jeopardy bar. As well as focusing on prosecutorial misconduct, in Justice Stevens words, "[i]t is almost inconceivable that a defendant could prove that the prosecutor's deliberate misconduct was motivated by an intent to provoke a mistrial instead of an intent simply to prejudice the defendant." Id. 456 U.S. at 688, 102 S. Ct. at 2096. (Stevens, J., concurring). The Supreme Court of Oregon, rejected the "intent" standard in considering Kennedy on remand from the United States Supreme Court. The court held "a retrial is barred by article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution when improper official conduct is so prejudicial to the defendant that it cannot be cured by means short of a mistrial, and if the official knows that the conduct is improper and prejudicial and either intends or is indifferent to the resulting mistrial or reversal." State v. Kennedy, 666 P.2d at 1326. This is a reasonable alternative to the federal "intent" standard and protects the defendant without the burden of an impossible problem of proof. At the same time, this standard protects the state's interest in the administration of justice by requiring that the prosecutor intentionally or knowingly pursue an improper course of action without heed to the consequences. Applying this standard to the facts in Kennedy, the Oregon court concluded that the criteria barring retrial were not met where the prosecutor's misconduct resulting in a mistrial consisted of seeking to impeach an expert witness by asking if the reason he had never done business with the defendant was "because he was a crook." The court noted that there was not "any suggestion that the prosecutor on previous occasions had been warned against similar transgressions." Id. at 1327. In the present case, however, the prosecutor had been warned, indeed, ordered by the court, not to go into the defendant's prior driving record or the fact that he had been in jail. Yet the prosecutor deliberately chose to ask the same witness at the second trial if she had any reason to suspect that defendant was driving illegally on the evening in question. Such disregard of the court's order meets the criteria of "`knowing' misconduct coupled with indifference toward the probable risk of a mistrial" required by the Oregon standard. Id. It is not the intent here to definitively urge this court's adoption of the Oregon standard. It is to indicate the existence of alternative standards which reasonably balance both the defendant's and state's interests refuting the majority's contention that no fair alternative to the federal intent standard exists under which this defendant would receive relief from retrial. The standard applied by the Court of Appeals in this case, gross negligence constituting bad faith, is also a reasonable standard. The failure of the prosecutor to adequately prepare his witness so she would not repeat her mistake in the second trial, then deliberately asking her a question about the legality of defendant's driving after having been warned by the court not to do so, also raises the double jeopardy bar of the Minnesota Constitution to a third trial under either standard. I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals. The writ should be made absolute. YETKA, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. [1] Law review commentaries addressing the issue include: Fleming &amp; Nordby, The Minnesota Bill of Rights: "Wrapt in the Old Miasmal Mist," 7 Hamline L.Rev. 51 (1984); Linde, E Pluribus Constitutional Theory and State Courts, 18 Ga.L. Rev. 165 (1984); Pollock, State Constitutions as Separate Sources of Fundamental Rights, 35 Rutgers L.Rev. 707 (1983). [1] The parties had agreed earlier that the brief, innocent conversation of a selected juror with the wife of the defense counsel in the hall was not grounds for preventing the defendant from getting a verdict of guilty or not guilty from this second tribunal.