Opinion ID: 2208613
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Modification of Iowa's Approach to the Lesser-Included Offense Doctrine.

Text: Iowa's present approach to the lesser-included offense doctrine involves a two-part test: The legal or element test requires the lesser offense to be composed solely of some but not all of the elements of the greater offenses. Thus the lesser offense is necessarily included in the greater offense if the greater offense cannot be committed without also committing the lesser. Conversely, if the lesser offense contains an element that is not part of the greater offense, the lesser cannot be included in the greater. The factual test requires the court to determine whether there is a sufficient factual basis in the record for submitting the included offense. State v. Lampman, 345 N.W.2d 142, 143 (Iowa 1984) (citations omitted). We devised the following formula to determine whether the factual test is met: In the included offense setting the courts apply a principle that when the major offense consists of elements A, B, and C, the lesser offense consists of elements B and C, and the record does not contain substantial evidence from some quarter controverting element A, the State's case stands or falls on the major offense. State v. Morgan, 322 N.W.2d 68, 69-70 (Iowa 1982). In short, unless there is evidence in the record controverting element A, the dissimilar element, the lesser-included offense instruction should not be given. As this formula shows, Iowa employs the common-law or strict statutory-elements approach to define a lesser-included offense, and the court function theory to determine when a lesser-included offense instruction should be given. The strict statutory-elements approach is embodied in Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(3) and in Iowa Code section 701.9 (1985). Rule 21(3) provides: Upon trial of an offense consisting of different degrees, the jury may find the defendant not guilty of the degree charged in the indictment or information, and guilty of any degree inferior thereto, or of an attempt to commit the offense when such attempt is prohibited by law. In all cases, the defendant may be found guilty of any offense the commission of which is necessarily included in that with which the defendant is charged. (Emphasis added.) Section 701.9, entitled Merger of lesser included offenses, provides: No person shall be convicted of a public offense which is necessarily included in another public offense of which the person is convicted. If the jury returns a verdict of guilty of more than one offense and such a verdict conflicts with this section, the court shall enter judgment of guilty of the greater of the offenses only. The necessarily included language of the rule and statute has traditionally been limited to the strict statutory-elements approach, as opposed to the cognate and Model Penal Code approaches. Ettinger, 50 Brooklyn L.Rev. at 195-96. It has been suggested that the necessarily included language implies a theoretical requirement to restrict included offenses that might fall within a rule or statute regarding included offenses. See id. at 201. Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(3), which compliments rule 21(3), requires the trial court to instruct the jury not only as to the public offense charged but as to all lesser offenses of which the accused might be found guilty under the indictment and upon the evidence adduced, even though such instructions have not been requested. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches used to define lesser-included offenses, we think we should retain our present strict statutory-elements approach. We think, however, that in determining when a lesser-included offense instruction should be given, the jury function theory better serves our purpose, and we adopt it. Such an approach simply requires applying the legal test and recognizes that the factual test is automatically met. See, e.g., People v. Beach, 429 Mich. 450, 418 N.W.2d 861 (1988). Michigan recognizes two classes of lesser-included offenses: those under the strict statutory-elements approach and those under the cognate approach. Id. at 464-65, 418 N.W.2d at 868. Under the Michigan strict statutory-elements approach, instructions are automatically given for necessarily-included offenses. The trial court does not review the record to determine whether there is evidence to support a verdict for the lesser offense. Id. Such a review is necessary only when the defense requests an instruction on a cognate lesser-included offense. Id. Like the Michigan court and others that apply the jury function theory, we hold that Iowa trial courts shall no longer be required to review the record to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support a verdict for a lesser-included offense. Except in two instances, they shall automatically instruct on a lesser-included offense if the legal test is met as to a greater offense that has support in the evidence. One exception to the automatic instruction rule is when the defendant stipulates to the dissimilar element of the greater offense. Logically, in these rare cases, the evidence is conclusive that no lesser-included offense was committed. The other exception involves lesser-included offenses that do not meet our legal test but are made lesser-included offenses by statute. These lesser-included offenses are examples of the cognate-evidence approach. They have several elements in common with the greater offense but may have one or two elements not essential to the greater crime. Necessarily, in these instances, the trial courts must apply the factual test to determine if sufficient evidence exists to submit these statutorily mandated lesser-included offenses. Our review of the Iowa criminal statutes suggests that the following crimes are made lesser-included offenses by law. Voluntary manslaughter is made an included offense for murder in the first or second degree. See Iowa Code § 707.4. Involuntary manslaughter is made an included offense for first- or second-degree murder and for voluntary manslaughter. See id. at § 707.5. Operating a vehicle without the owner's consent is made a lesser-included offense of theft. See id. § 714.7. We note that in each instance, the greater offense can be committed without committing the lesser offense. Thus, each of these lesser offenses is actually a cognate, rather than a necessarily included, offense. Under our modified approach we still retain the rule that to preserve error, a defendant must request a lesser-included offense instruction or object to the court's failure to give it. See State v. Burkett, 357 N.W.2d 632, 634-35 (Iowa 1984); see also Iowa R.Crim.P. 18(5)(f) (incorporating by reference the requirements of Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 196, which states that only objections to jury instructions that are made to the trial court shall be considered on appeal). We also retain the rule that a defendant may expressly waive a lesser-included offense instruction. See Burkett, 357 N.W.2d at 635; State v. Veverka, 271 N.W.2d 744, 749 (Iowa 1978). A number of reasons favor our modified approach to the lesser-included offense doctrine. First, our strict statutory-elements approach is consistent with the necessarily included language of Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(3) and Iowa Code section 701.9. The cognate and Model Penal Code approaches would in effect rule out the necessarily included language of the rule and statute. In its place, these two approaches would substitute language such as factually related to and serves the same policy goals as the charged offense. Cf. Schmuck, 840 F.2d at 389 (utilizing similar reasoning in connection with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 31(c) on lesser-included offenses as a ground for rejecting inherent relationship test). Second, the strict statutory-elements approach besides being truest to the legislative scheme ... offers the most clarity to both practitioners and judges. Thus, perhaps the most compelling reason for adopting the strict standard is the clarity and ease with which it can be applied. Absent a statutory modification, a single determination suffices to categorize the relationship between any two criminal offenses for all subsequent cases. Each party to later criminal proceedings is then on notice regarding the availability of the lesser-included offense doctrine and should therefore be better prepared to present an argument specific to the issues known to be in question. Every formal accusation of a particular crime thus carries with it the same potential for mitigation. This provides an evenhandedness impossible under the other [approaches] and encourages the parties to use the evidence to prove or disprove the case at hand, instead of inviting them to manipulate the proof to accommodate as wide a range of conclusions as possible. Ettinger, 50 Brooklyn L.Rev. at 201; see also Schmuck, 840 F.2d at 389. Third, our modified approach to the question of when a lesser-included offense instruction should be given is more logical than our former factual test. This improvement is apparent from our discussion on the jury function theory vis-a-vis the court function theory. More importantly, our modified approach places the factual determination of a lesser-included offense in the hands of the jury, where it belongs. Trial courts should not be in the business of reviewing the record and weighing the evidence to determine when a lesser-included offense instruction should be given. Moreover, when employing the factual test under the court function theory, we did not strictly apply the principle that a not guilty plea controverts all the elements of the charged offense. State v. Morgan, 322 N.W.2d 68, 69 (Iowa 1982). As we said earlier, courts applying the jury function theory do strictly apply the principle. This accounts for the main difference between the theories. Thus, our factual test has no doubt caused considerable problems for trial courts in those cases where a defendant has not testified, has denied culpability, or has asserted inconsistent defenses. For example, in Morgan, 322 N.W.2d at 69-71, the defendant asserted an alibi defense, and we found the evidence insufficient to controvert the additional element in the greater offense. Later, in State v. Mount, 422 N.W.2d 497, 499-501 (Iowa 1988), we held there was sufficient evidence in the record to controvert the elevating element, even though the defendant there also asserted an alibi defense. The trial court's observation in Mount underscores the problem the courts have in applying the factual test: Defense doesn't attack the allegations [of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary] except to say [he] was not the person [who] did it. So it's ... an all or nothing proposition here.... The same goes for ... burglary in the second degree. Again, as this case has shaped up, the defendant either did what the State said or didn't do what the State said. Mount, 422 N.W.2d at 500. We tried to convey a message to trial courts that in close cases, a lesser-included offense instruction should be given. See id. at 501 (In other words, the duty to instruct on lesser-included offenses is not the exception, but the rule.). The approach we adopt today eliminates the troublesome problem posed by the manner in which we applied our previous factual test to lesser-included offenses. Fourth, the strict statutory-elements approach better comports with the constitutional requirement for adequate notice of charges than the cognate-evidence and Model Penal Code approaches do. Blair, 21 Am.Crim.L.Rev. at 452. Under our approach, the charge against the defendant necessarily implies whether and which lesser-included offenses come into play. See Iowa R.Crim.P. 6(1) (Where a public offense carries with it certain lesser-included offenses, the latter should not be charged, and it is sufficient to charge that the accused committed the major offense.). With the cognate-evidence and Model Penal Code approaches, the defendant must await the evidence before knowing what, if any, lesser-included offenses are implicated. Fifth, considering the double-jeopardy issue, one federal appeals court has pointed out that at least arguabl[y] ... the requisite identity of elements is to be determined solely from comparison of the two statutes, and ... the indictment does not narrow the type of elements to be examined. Schmuck, 840 F.2d at 390. The court noted that Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 416, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 2265, 65 L.Ed.2d 228, 235 (1980), decided after Brown and Blockburger, focuses `on the proof necessary to prove the statutory elements of each offense, rather than on the actual evidence to be presented at trial.' Schmuck, 840 F.2d at 390. Simply put, Schmuck takes issue with any notion that Brown and Blockburger require a cognate-evidence or Model Penal Code approach to double-jeopardy claims. Although Schmuck does not decide the issue, nor do we, we agree with the implication from Schmuck that the approach to lesser-included offenses we adopt today may pass constitutional muster in a double-jeopardy context. See State v. Stewart, 223 N.W.2d 250, 251 (Iowa 1974), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 902, 96 S.Ct. 205, 46 L.Ed.2d 134 (1975) (applying strict statutory-elements approach to double-jeopardy claim). If we are wrong in this respect, we can simply use whatever approach is required in a double-jeopardy context, without abandoning our own approach in all other contexts. As a practical matter, the number of such cases will probably never be large enough to justify abandoning our approach. Finally, the due process concerns raised by Beck v. Alabama may seldom arise, given the nature of our new approach. As we noted above, Beck leaves open the question of whether, in a noncapital case, a failure to give a lesser-included offense instruction warranted by the evidence violates due process. Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(3), pertaining to attempted offenses and offenses consisting of different degrees, dictates that a number of lesser-included offenses are available by statute. Iowa Code sections 707.4, 707.5, and 714.7 perform the same function. As we noted earlier, section 707.4 makes voluntary manslaughter an included offense under an indictment for murder in the first or second degree. Similarly, section 707.5 makes involuntary manslaughter an included offense under an indictment for voluntary manslaughter or murder in the first or second degree. Section 714.7 makes operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent a lesser-included offense of theft. Our point here is that the legislature has already mandated by statute a large number of lesser-included offenses. The approach we adopt today increases the potential for instructing on lesser-included offenses. Thus, with this approach, we are utilizing existing law to meet the possibility that the Supreme Court may extend the Beck rule to noncapital cases. In any event, we do not think the concerns raised by Beck should deter us from adopting our modified approach.