Opinion ID: 1188816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Fundamental Fairness of Retroactive Application

Text: Appellants also argue that retroactive application of court decisions is fundamentally unfair, citing State v. Ikezawa, 75 Haw. 210, 857 P.2d 593 (1993). Ikezawa was originally charged with third degree assault, which was dismissed without prejudice. Fourteen months later, based on the same incident, Ikezawa was charged with second degree assault. Prior to trial, Ikezawa moved to dismiss on the ground that the six-month period within which trial must commence under Hawai`i Rule of Penal Procedure (HRPP) 48(b)(1) had lapsed. The court denied the motion, and Ikezawa was subsequently convicted of the lesser included offense of assault in the third degree. Ikezawa appealed the court's denial of his Rule 48 motion. The issue on appeal involved the retroactive application of our decision in State v. Balauro, 73 Haw. 70, 828 P.2d 267 (1992), which had been decided subsequent to Ikezawa's trial. Balauro had departed from previous precedent by interpreting HRPP 48(c)(6) to exclude certain periods of time from the six-month period within which a trial is required. 73 Haw. at 73, 828 P.2d at 268-69. In Ikezawa, this court held that where substantial prejudice results from retrospective application of a new decision, it would be applied prospectively only. 75 Haw. at 220-21, 857 P.2d at 599. In Ikezawa, we reasoned that [t]he Constitution neither prohibits nor requires retrospective effect.... Free to apply decisions with or without retroactivity, the Court's task is to exercise its discretion, weighing the merits and demerits of retroactive application of the particular rule. Id. at 220, 857 P.2d at 598 (citing State v. Santiago, 53 Haw. 254, 268, 492 P.2d 657, 665 (1971)). The Ikezawa court recognized the need to consider different factors in determining whether to apply a decision retroactively. We noted that the United States Supreme Court has given consideration to three factors: (a) the purpose to be served by the newly announced rule[;] (b) the extent of reliance by law enforcement authorities on the old standards[;] and (c) the effect on the administration of justice of a retroactive application of the new standards. Id. (citing Santiago, 53 Haw. at 268-69, 492 P.2d at 665-66). We stated that, alternatively, `[f]actors to be considered include: Prior history of the rule in question, its purpose and effect, and whether retroactive operation will further or retard its operation; interests in the administration of justice and the integrity of the judicial process.' Id. (citing Russell v. Blackwell, 53 Haw. 274, 277, 492 P.2d 953, 956 (1972)). We emphasized that implicit in these factors is the concept of fairness. Id. Relying on the selective-retroactive doctrine set forth in Santiago and Russell, the court in Ikezawa declined to retrospectively apply its holding in Balauro, applying instead case law applicable prior to Ikezawa's trial. The selective-retroactive doctrine in Santiago and Russell was based on United States Supreme Court authority from the 1960s enunciated in, among other cases, Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965); Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); and Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). See generally R. Fallon & D. Meltzer, New Law, Non-Retroactivity, and Constitutional Remedies, 104 Harv.L.Rev. 1731 (1991). Under this doctrine, a court could deny retroactive effect to a newly announced rule of criminal law based upon factors such as the purpose of the new rule, the reliance placed upon the previous view of the law, and the effect on the administration of justice of a retrospective application of the new rule. Harper v. Virginia Dept. of Taxation, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 113 S.Ct. 2510, 2516, 125 L.Ed.2d 74 (1993) (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). The United States Supreme Court, however, has overruled its previous precedents in the non-retroactivity area and now applies retroactively all its new criminal decisions whose holdings are applied to the appealing party. In Harper, the Supreme Court recently confirmed that it overruled Linkletter in Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987), and eliminated limits on retroactivity in the criminal context by holding that all newly declared... rule[s] must be applied retroactively to all criminal cases pending on direct review. Harper, ___ U.S. at ___, 113 S.Ct. at 2516 (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). [24] See also United States v. Johnson, 457 U.S. 537, 545-48, 102 S.Ct. 2579, 2584-86, 73 L.Ed.2d 202 (1981) and Powell v. Nevada, ___ U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 1280, 128 L.Ed.2d 1 (1994). We acknowledge that this recent United States Supreme Court case law, by overruling the doctrinal foundation of Hawai`i case law, could call into question our continued adherence to Ikezawa. However, relying on independent state law grounds, we choose to continue to follow the more flexible test we reiterated in Ikezawa when determining whether to retroactively apply decisions of state law made by this court. In Ikezawa, we held that the defendant was substantially prejudiced by his reliance on previous precedent because the success of defendant's motion to dismiss turned on whether the Balauro case would be given retroactive effect. Ikezawa, 75 Haw. at 222, 857 P.2d at 599. Thus, the retroactivity question was outcome-determinative. Here, appellants have failed to show how they would be substantially prejudiced by the retroactive application of Act 128. The appellants would receive an impartial trial, albeit a non-jury trial, and would face lesser penalties under the new version of HRS § 291-4. As the Supreme Court stated in Duncan: We would not assert, however, that every criminal trial  or any particular trial  held before a judge alone is unfair or that a defendant may never be as fairly treated by a judge as he would be by a jury. Thus we hold no constitutional doubts about the practices, common in both federal and state courts, of ... prosecuting petty crimes without extending a right to jury trial. Duncan, 391 U.S. at 158, 88 S.Ct. at 1452 (emphasis added). Unlike Ikezawa, retroactive application of Act 128 would not be outcome-determinative. Therefore, we hold that retroactive application of today's decision to pending cases passes the test enunciated in Ikezawa. Accordingly, we answer the second reserved question in the affirmative.