Opinion ID: 1381383
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Cautionary Jury Instruction.

Text: The major issue on appeal is whether the trial court committed reversible error by refusing the following jury instruction requested by appellant: It is a constitutional right of a defendant in a criminal trial that he may not be compelled to testify. You must not draw any inference from the fact that he does not testify. Further, you must neither discuss this matter nor permit it to enter into your deliberations in any way. [1] The recent Supreme Court decision of Carter v. Kentucky, 450 U.S. 288, 101 S.Ct. 1112, 67 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981), requires courts to honor requests for such cautionary instructions, in order to comport with a defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Respondent concedes that the trial court's refusal of the requested instruction constitutes error under Carter. The state claims, however, that the Carter decision should not be applied retroactively to this case. The Carter decision is silent as to its retroactive application. We are concerned here only with partial retroactivity; Franklin's judgment of conviction was not final at the time the Carter rule was announced in March 1981. Although the practice is not universal, the Supreme Court has noted that generally, a new rule is applicable to cases pending on direct review when the rule is announced. Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 627, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 1736, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965). But see, Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). [2] In Tehan v. United States, 382 U.S. 406, 86 S.Ct. 459, 15 L.Ed.2d 453 (1966), the Court was required to determine the retroactivity of the rule established in Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965): adverse comment by a prosecutor or judge upon a defendant's failure to testify violates the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The Tehan Court determined that on balance, retroactivity of the Griffin rule to cases in which the judgment was final on the date of Griffin's issuance was not warranted. The Court noted, however, that the question in Tehan was not pure prospectivity of Griffin, [n]or [was] there any question of the applicability of the Griffin rule to cases still pending on direct review at the time it was announced. Id. 382 U.S. at 409, n. 3, 86 S.Ct. at 461 n. 3 (emphasis added). In Griffin, the Court anticipated and reserved the related constitutional question raised by Carter. Griffin, supra 380 U.S. at 615, n. 6, 85 S.Ct. at 1233, n. 6. The Carter decision makes clear that both the Griffin and Carter rulings serve the same purpose and support the same proposition  that a defendant cannot be penalized for the exercise of his constitutional right not to testify. Carter, supra 450 U.S. at 301, 101 S.Ct. at 1119. We are satisfied that the Carter decision warrants that same retroactive effect given the analogous Griffin rule; Carter is applicable to cases pending on direct review when the Supreme Court announced its decision. [3] Therefore, the trial court committed error by refusing defendant's requested instruction. However, we reject appellant's contention that Carter requires automatic reversal for such error. The Carter Court expressly declined to address the question of automatic reversal because the state had failed to raise the harmless error argument below. Id. at 304, 101 S.Ct. at 1121. The Court noted only that it was arguable that refusal to give such a requested instruction could never be harmless. Id. (citing Bruno v. United States, 308 U.S. 287, 60 S.Ct. 198, 84 L.Ed. 257 (1939)). In Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), the Court determined that the violation of the Griffin rule would be governed by the harmless error standard. The Chapman Court concluded that protecting the defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege is a consideration of a different order from those concerns underlying other constitutional decisions which have mandated automatic reversal. See Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), (indigent's right to counsel); Payne v. Arkansas, 356 U.S. 560, 78 S.Ct. 844, 2 L.Ed.2d 975 (1958), (coerced confessions). In these instances, there is a clear danger of convicting the innocent... . By contrast, the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination is not an adjunct to the ascertainment of truth. Tehan, supra 382 U.S. at 416, 86 S.Ct. at 465. We have already noted the analogous relationship between the Griffin and Carter holdings; we see no justification for applying a different standard of review to the rule announced in Carter. We join several other jurisdictions [4] which have determined that Carter did not abrogate the Chapman test: the error is not reversible if the court determines that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In the instant case, based on the victims' testimony, police accounts, the appellant's own admissions and the physical evidence presented at trial, we find that competent evidence of appellant's guilt was overwhelming. Failure to give the requested cautionary instruction likely had minimal, if any, impact on the jury's decision, and we conclude the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.