Opinion ID: 1785298
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Court's Reliance on Langley

Text: The court's reliance on State v. Langley, 354 N.W.2d 389 (Minn.1984), to support its broad application of the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine is, at best, misguided. Although stare decisis requires a compelling reason before we will depart from precedent, it does not command blind deference to a wrongly decided case. Here, there are compelling reasons to depart from Langley. First, the Langley court engaged in no discussion or analysis of the doctrine, but simply stated its conclusion that the defendant there should not be afforded his Sixth Amendment rights as a shield to protect him from the ramifications of having murdered his wife Rose because the evidence was strong that he had been the instrument of the denial of his own right of cross-examination. Id. at 400. Absent any discussion and analysis, it is impossible to know the basis for the court's conclusion. As troubling as the Langley court's conclusion is, given the complete lack of any analysis underlying that conclusion, it is even more troubling given the record before that court. A review of the briefs in Langley indicate that neither party raised or briefed the applicability of the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine to the court. Further, the two cases relied on by the Langley court to reach the conclusion that a defendant need not have intentionally procured the absence of a witness for the forfeiture doctrine to apply do not support that conclusion. The Langley court relied on State v. Olson, 291 N.W.2d 203 (Minn.1980), and United States v. Carlson, 547 F.2d 1346 (8th Cir.1976). Id. In Olson, we applied the traditional formulation of the forfeiture doctrine, stating that one who procures the absence of a witness by threats, bribes, concealment or intimidation has forfeited his confrontation right. Olson, 291 N.W.2d at 207. We also noted that, absent a conspiracy, a forfeiture occurs when a defendant threatens a witness after he has been apprehended and causes the witness to remain mute. Id. (citing Motes, 178 U.S. at 471-74, 20 S.Ct. 993). Olson said nothing to suggest that the doctrine could be applied in the absence of intentional witness tampering. Similarly, Carlson considered the forfeiture doctrine necessary only to prevent defendants from exploiting the criminal justice process. See Carlson, 547 F.2d at 1359 ([T]he law [should not] permit an accused to subvert a criminal prosecution by causing witnesses not to testify at trial who have, at the pretrial stage, disclosed information which is inculpatory as to the accused.). Finally, research indicates that Langley is an anomalous outlier. [48] As noted above, our discussion in Olson does not stand for the proposition on which the Langley court relied. Nor has my research turned up any other Minnesota case before Langley that stands for the existence of a murder exception to the confrontation right. See, e.g., State v. Hansen, 312 N.W.2d 96, 103-05 (Minn.1981) (finding no forfeiture, citing to federal and state cases all involving threats to witnesses); Olson, 291 N.W.2d at 207; State v. Black, 291 N.W.2d 208, 214 (Minn.1980) (citing Carlson, noting threats made to witness by defendant). My research also indicates that, since Langley, there are no reported cases citing Langley as defining the breadth of the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine, nor have we decided any case applying the doctrine as set out in Langley. Indeed, we have not decided any subsequent case in which a forfeiture was found without a showing of witness tampering of some sort. See, e.g., Wright, 726 N.W.2d at 482 (remanding for determination of whether intent to procure witness's unavailability was shown); State v. Fields, 679 N.W.2d 341, 347 (Minn.2004) (observing that defendant acted with intent to render witness unavailable); State v. Byers, 570 N.W.2d 487, 494-95 (Minn.1997) (noting defendant's attempts at intimidating witness); State v. Peirce, 364 N.W.2d 801, 807 (Minn. 1985) (noting that defendant threatened to kill witness if he testified). I would also note that, when the reasons for [a] rule have ceased to exist, we ought not to blindly adhere to former decisions even though legally sound when the case was decided. Johnson v. Chicago, B. & Q.R.R. Co., 243 Minn. 58, 69, 66 N.W.2d 763, 771 (1954). Langley was not legally sound when decided, and, until today, we have not followed it. Given the Court's pronouncements in Davis and Crawford, there is no reason to begin following it now. For all of the foregoing reasons, I concur only in the result.