Opinion ID: 2365333
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Due Process Standard

Text: In Commonwealth v. Snyder, 552 Pa. 44, 713 A.2d 596 (1998), this Court held that Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania [10] is coextensive with the due process protections of the United States Constitution. [11] We expressly declined in Snyder to hold that the Pennsylvania Constitution provides greater protection than the due process provisions of the United States Constitution, and held that, with respect to claims of violation of due process caused by pre-arrest delay, our analysis is the same pursuant to both due process clauses. Id. at 602. Consequently, we must turn to the standards governing due process claims based on pre-arrest delay promulgated by the United States Supreme Court. United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971), was the seminal case to address whether a defendant's federal constitutional rights are violated by an extensive delay between the occurrence of a crime and the indictment or arrest of a defendant for the crime. In Marion, the defendants were charged with having engaged in a fraudulent business scheme beginning in March of 1965 and ending in January of 1966. The federal prosecutor in Marion did not empanel a grand jury to investigate the scheme until September of 1969, and no indictment was returned until March of 1970. The defendants moved to dismiss the indictment, claiming: (1) the delay in indicting them violated their Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial; and, (2) the delay violated their Fifth Amendment right to due process of law. The federal district court granted the defendants' motion and dismissed the indictment. The United States Supreme Court reversed the dismissal, rejecting the defendants' Sixth Amendment speedy trial claims, holding that such protection did not apply until either a formal indictment or information or else the actual restraints imposed by arrest and holding to answer a criminal charge, which was not implicated in defendants' complaints of pre-arrest delay. Id. at 320, 92 S.Ct. 455. Concerning the defendants' Fifth Amendment due process claims, the Court noted that the primary guarantee against the bringing of overly stale charges was whatever statute of limitations applied to the crime. [12] The Court went on to note, however, the statute of limitations does not fully define the appellees' rights with respect to the events occurring prior to indictment. Id. at 324, 92 S.Ct. 455. The following passage from Marion is significant: Thus, the Government concedes that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment would require dismissal of the indictment if it were shown at trial that the pre-indictment delay in this case caused substantial prejudice to appellees' rights to a fair trial and that the delay was an intentional device to gain tactical advantage over the accused. Cf. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963); Napue v. Ilinois, 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959). However, we need not, and could not now, determine when and in what circumstances actual prejudice resulting from pre-accusation delays requires the dismissal of the prosecution. Id. at 324-25, 92 S.Ct. 455 (footnotes omitted). The Court later stated: Nor have appellees adequately demonstrated that the pre-indictment delay by the Government violated the Due Process Clause. No actual prejudice to the conduct of the defense is alleged or proved, and there is no showing that the Government intentionally delayed to gain some tactical advantage over appellees or to harass them. Id. at 325, 92 S.Ct. 455. The Court concluded its Opinion by stating, [e]vents at trial may demonstrate actual prejudice, but at the present time appellees' due process claims are speculative and premature. Id. at 326, 92 S.Ct. 455. Six years after Marion, the United States Supreme Court revisited the due process implications of pre-arrest delay in United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 97 S.Ct. 2044, 52 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977). Eugene Lovasco was indicted in March of 1975 for possessing firearms stolen from the mail beginning in July and ending in August of 1973. Lovasco moved to dismiss the indictment, claiming that the prosecutor's delay in bringing the indictment caused him prejudice through the deaths of two favorable witnesses and therefore violated his due process rights. The trial court agreed and dismissed the indictment, finding that the seventeen-month delay before the case was presented to the grand jury had not been explained or justified and was unnecessary and unreasonable. Id. at 787, 97 S.Ct. 2044. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the circumstances in which the Constitution requires that an indictment be dismissed because of delay between the commission of an offense and the initiation of prosecution. Id. at 784, 97 S.Ct. 2044. The Court discussed the Marion decision and rejected Lovasco's argument that if a defendant suffered actual prejudice from the pretrial delay, this was sufficient proof to establish a due process violation:  Marion makes clear that proof of prejudice is generally a necessary but not sufficient element of a due process claim, and that the due process inquiry must consider the reasons for the delay as well as the prejudice to the accused. Id. at 790, 97 S.Ct. 2044. In a later discussion of the reasons for the delay, the Court stated, [i]n our view, investigative delay is unlike delay undertaken by the Government solely `to gain a tactical advantage over the accused'.... Id. at 795, 97 S.Ct. 2044, citing Marion, 404 U.S. at 324, 92 S.Ct. 455. Thus, a two-prong test emerged from Marion and Lovasco to establish a due process claim for pre-arrest delay: (1) the defendant must show actual prejudice from the delay, and (2) prejudice alone is not sufficient to show a violation of due process where the delay was due to the government's continuing investigation of the crime. From the time Lovasco was decided in 1977, the United States Supreme Court has not granted certiorari to discuss in more depth the due process standard as established by Marion and Lovasco, and has only tangentially discussed the Marion/Lovasco standard in cases involving other issues. See United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 192, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984) (in a case involving right to appointment of counsel for federal prison inmates who were placed in administrative detention pending indictment for crimes committed in prison, the Court stated, in dicta, the Fifth Amendment requires the dismissal of an indictment, even if it is brought within the statute of limitations, if the defendant can prove that the Government's delay in bringing the indictment was a deliberate device to gain an advantage over him and that it caused him actual prejudice). See also Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 57, 109 S.Ct. 333, 102 L.Ed.2d 281 (1988) (in a case concerning whether defendant's due process rights were violated by the police destruction of evidence in the absence of bad faith motives by the police, the Court cited Marion's language that no actual prejudice to the conduct of the defense is alleged and proved, and there is no showing that the Government intentionally delayed to gain some tactical advantage over appellees or to harass them). All the federal circuits that have examined pre-arrest delay due process claims agree that the Marion/Lovasco standard requires that a defendant establish, as a threshold matter, that he or she suffered actual prejudice from the delay. All federal circuits also agree that Marion and Lovasco require another step for there to be a successful due process claim. There is a split of authority, [13] however, as to what that next step involves. A majority of the circuits hold that a defendant bears the burden of proving both actual prejudice from the delay and that the delay was intentionally undertaken by the government for the purpose of gaining some tactical advantage over the accused in the contemplated prosecution or for some other impermissible, bad faith purpose. United States v. Crouch, 84 F.3d 1497, 1514 (5th Cir.1996). See, e.g., United States v. Johnson, 120 F.3d 1107 (10th Cir.1997); United States v. Rogers, 118 F.3d 466 (6th Cir.1997); United States v. Ismaili, 828 F.2d 153 (3d. Cir.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 935, 108 S.Ct. 1110, 99 L.Ed.2d 271 (1988); United States v. Hoo, 825 F.2d 667 (2d. Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1035, 108 S.Ct. 742, 98 L.Ed.2d 777 (1988); United States v. Lebron-Gonzalez, 816 F.2d 823 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 843, 108 S.Ct. 135, 98 L.Ed.2d 92 (1987). The Fourth and Seventh Circuits, on the other hand, read the second element of the Marion/Lovasco standard differently, and say that it requires a balancing test once a defendant can show actual prejudice due to the delay. Pursuant to this scheme, once the defendant proves that he has suffered actual prejudice, the burden shifts to the state to come forward and provide reasons for the delay. See, e.g., United States v. Sowa, 34 F.3d 447 (7th Cir.1994). The Fourth Circuit explicitly rejected the state's argument that only proof of an improper prosecutorial motivation for the delay would be sufficient to establish a violation of due process. See Howell v. Barker, 904 F.2d 889 (4th Cir.1990). Recently, we reviewed the standard for due process claims based on pre-arrest delay in Commonwealth v. Snyder, 552 Pa. 44, 713 A.2d 596 (1998). Keith Snyder was charged in 1993 with the murder of his wife and child, who died during a fire at the Snyder home in 1982. The local and state police investigated the deaths for two years, and a special investigating grand jury was empanelled in 1984, but disbanded in 1986 without returning an indictment. In 1993, a new District Attorney reopened the case and charged Snyder with murder. Snyder filed a motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the eleven-year delay between the occurrence of the crime and the indictment caused him actual prejudice and deprived him of his due process rights. The trial court denied the motion, and a jury convicted Snyder of first-degree murder. On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed. We granted allocatur in Snyder to decide whether the extraordinary pre-arrest delay denied the Appellant due process of law. Id. at 597. We concluded that Snyder had suffered actual prejudice from the pre-arrest delay. An autopsy of his wife's body showed that she had consumed a large amount of alcohol at the time of her death. Snyder argued that certain witnesses who had died by the time of his trial had heard statements from his wife that she was contemplating suicide. We determined that the death of witnesses who would have aided Snyder's defense theory that his wife actually set the fire as an act of suicidal depression prejudiced him. Of particular importance to Scher's case, we then went on to say, looking to the second prong of the Marion/Lovasco test, we must next decide whether the Commonwealth's reasons for postponing the Appellant's arrest were proper. Id. at 603. The Commonwealth argued that Snyder could prevail on his claim of deprivation of due process only if he demonstrated that the delay was an intentional ploy designed to give the Commonwealth an advantage at trial. We rejected this argument: The Appellant does not argue that the prior District Attorneys of Luzerne County intentionally postponed this prosecution to gain a tactical advantage over the Appellant. It appears that the prosecutors, in the exercise of their discretion, decided for reasons that do not appear in the record, that this case lacked prosecutorial merit. Nor is there any basis to conclude that [the current District Attorney] intentionally continued to defer this prosecution for inappropriate reasons. However, the Appellant asserts that reviving this dormant investigation against him was improper, eleven years after Mrs. Snyder's death, based solely on changed policies of the District Attorney's Office. Whether done intentionally or not, the Commonwealth gained a tremendous strategical advantage against the Appellant due to the passage of time and the loss of critical defense testimony through death and memory.... We hold that, based on all of the facts of this case, bringing this prosecution after more than eleven years caused actual prejudice to the Appellant and deprived him of due process of law unless there were proper reasons for the delay. Id. at 605. We then remanded in order for the Commonwealth to have the opportunity to present the reasons for the delay. [14] In reviewing Scher's due process claim based on pre-arrest delay, the Superior Court examined the development of the standard in Marion and Lovasco, and our discussion of that standard in Snyder. Commonwealth v. Scher, 732 A.2d 1278 (Pa.Super.1999). The court summarized our interpretation of the Marion/Lovasco standard in Snyder as requiring an evaluation of: (1) whether the pre-arrest delay resulted in actual prejudice to the appellant, and (2) whether the Commonwealth's reasons for postponing the appellant's arrest were proper. Scher, 732 A.2d at 1282. The court opined, however, that we had not, in Snyder, specifically set forth a standard for lower courts to apply in evaluating the propriety of an investigation undertaken by the Commonwealth. Id. at 1283. After concluding that our case law reveals no other standard, the court relied on a Ninth Circuit opinion, United States v. Mays, 549 F.2d 670 (9th Cir. 1977), to provide the second element of the due process standard. In particular, the court cited the balancing test adopted in Mays as being most consistent with the due process principles articulated in Marion and Lovasco: [T]he standard to be used [in a due process claim for pre-indictment delay] has to do with where the fulcrum for the balancing test is to be placed. In Marion, the Court states that the presence of actual prejudice resulting from pre-indictment delay would not by itself warrant the dismissal of a criminal prosecution. The greater the length of the delay and the more substantial the actual prejudice to the defendant becomes, the greater the reasonableness and the necessity for the delay will have to be to balance out the prejudice. However, despite the degree of actual prejudice, for a judgment in favor of dismissal, there must be some culpability on the government's part either in the form of intentional misconduct or negligence. Scher, 732 A.2d at 1284, (quoting Mays, 549 F.2d at 678) (emphasis omitted). Based on this standard, the Superior Court concluded: [W]here there has been an excessive and prejudicial pre-arrest delay, we will not only inquire as to whether there has been any intentional delay by the prosecution to gain a tactical advantage over the accused, but we will also consider whether the prosecution has been negligent by failing to pursue a reasonably diligent criminal investigation. Id. It is this determination by the Superior Courtthat mere negligence in the investigation of a crime constitutes an improper purpose for pre-arrest delaythat we must consider presently. As we made apparent from our previously-cited language in Snyder, we do not follow the view subscribed to by the majority of the federal circuits that a defendant can prevail on a due process claim based on pre-arrest delay only where he or she proves actual prejudice and that the delay was an intentional device employed by the prosecutor to gain a tactical advantage over the accused. We agree with the court below in its reading of Marion and Lovasco that delay intentionally undertaken by the prosecution to gain a tactical advantage over the defendant is one case, but not the only case, where pre-arrest delay would violate due process. However, in requiring, as we did in Snyder, an examination of the reasons for the delay, we did not intend to create an obligation on the Commonwealth to conduct all criminal investigations pursuant to a due diligence or negligence standard, measured from the moment when criminal charges are filed and the defendant raises his due process claim. Such a standard would be too onerous, requiring judicial oversight of decisions traditionally entrusted to the prosecutor. Furthermore, a due diligence or negligence standard would require an inquiry into the methods, resources, and techniques of law enforcement in conducting a criminal investigation that would amount to judicial second-guessing of how the Commonwealth must build its case. We are mindful of the Supreme Court's admonition in Lovasco against placing too stringent a responsibility on the prosecution to justify the delay in the face of these claims: [T]he Due Process Clause does not permit courts to abort criminal prosecutions simply because they disagree with a prosecutor's judgment as to when to seek an indictment. Judges are not free, in defining due process, to impose on law enforcement officials our personal and private notions of fairness and to disregard the limits that bind judges in their judicial function. Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952). Our task is more circumscribed. Lovasco, 431 U.S. at 790, 97 S.Ct. 2044. Indeed, the disposition of the Snyder case following our remand order illustrates the flaw in the Superior Court's adoption of a negligence standard in Scher. Pursuant to our remand order in Snyder, the trial court conducted two days of hearings to ascertain the propriety of the Commonwealth's reasons for charging Snyder eleven years after the crime occurred. Snyder, 761 A.2d at 586. The Commonwealth presented the testimony of previous Luzerne County District Attorneys as to the status of the investigation when they held office, and what steps were taken to advance the investigation. At the close of these hearings, the trial court concluded that the prosecutor's delay in filing charges was not improper and affirmed Snyder's murder conviction. An en banc Superior Court affirmed. The court agreed with the trial court that the Luzerne County District Attorneys had not acted improperly and that their actions did not deprive Snyder of his right to due process of law. Notably, the court summarized the reasons why due process principles do not require a judicially-imposed due diligence or negligence standard for oversight of a criminal investigation: From our review of the precedents... it is clear that in assessing the performance of prosecutors as to delay in initiating charges, there is a distinct characteristic of hesitancy to critically evaluate the day-to-day decision making of the office of the prosecutor. This, undoubtedly, stems from a recognition that the prosecutor must face a stream of current cases which demand immediate attention and are subject to intense public scrutiny; that the office typically has limited resources which must react to legislative, judicial, media and public demands for priority in addressing an ever-changing array of social problems.... It should not offend constitutional standards even if it may be said that a given case has undergone a period of informed deferral or perhaps even benign neglect. Id. at 589 (footnote omitted). Recognizing that a panel of that court in Scher had applied a standard that by its terms, implicates both a negligence and due diligence concept in the judicial evaluation of the prosecutor's performance, the en banc court in Snyder specifically refused to follow that standard. Id. at 590. The court stated, [t]he Scher decision was filed after the hearing and order on remand in the instant matter and we have elected not to follow the `due diligence' and negligence standards adopted therein. As a court en banc, we are not bound to follow a superior court panel opinion. Id. (citations omitted). We agree with this rationale that negligence or due diligence in the conduct of a criminal investigation is not the appropriate standard for deciding whether delay in indictment deprives a defendant of due process. As a result, the test that we believe is the correct one must take into consideration all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the case, including: the deference that courts must afford to the prosecutor's conclusions that a case is not ripe for prosecution; the limited resources available to law enforcement agencies when conducting a criminal investigation; the prosecutor's motives in delaying indictment, and; the degree to which the defendant's own actions contributed to the delay. Therefore, to clarify the standard established in Snyder, we hold that in order to prevail on a due process claim based on pre-arrest delay, the defendant must first show that the delay caused him actual prejudice, that is, substantially impaired his or her ability to defend against the charges. The court must then examine all of the circumstances to determine the validity of the Commonwealth's reasons for the delay. Only in situations where the evidence shows that the delay was the product of intentional, bad faith, or reckless [15] conduct by the prosecution, however, will we find a violation of due process. Negligence in the conduct of a criminal investigation, without more, will not be sufficient to prevail on a due process claim based on pre-arrest delay. With this clarification of the standard in mind, we turn to Scher's case.