Opinion ID: 1162550
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: ACTUAL PREJUDICE: In re Personal Restraint Petition of Samuel K. Childress

Text: The issue in a personal restraint petition is whether the petitioner's right to a fair trial was actually and substantially prejudiced by constitutional error. In re Sauve, 103 Wn.2d 322, 325, 692 P.2d 818 (1985); In re Haverty, 101 Wn.2d 498, 504, 681 P.2d 835 (1984); In re Hews, 99 Wn.2d 80, 87, 660 P.2d 263 (1983); In re Hagler, 97 Wn.2d 818, 825, 650 P.2d 1103 (1982). The actual prejudice standard of review for collateral attack places the burden upon the petitioner, as opposed to the harmless error standard on direct appeal, because [c]ollateral relief undermines the principles of finality of litigation, degrades the prominence of the trial, and sometimes costs the society the right to punish admitted offenders. Hagler, at 824. [2] Those types of constitutional errors which can never be considered harmless on direct appeal will also be presumed prejudicial for purposes of personal restraint petitions. See In re Boone, 103 Wn.2d 224, 233, 691 P.2d 964 (1984); In re Gunter, 102 Wn.2d 769, 774, 689 P.2d 1074 (1984); In re Richardson, 100 Wn.2d 669, 679, 675 P.2d 209 (1983). In all other personal restraint petitions, however, constitutional error is not presumed to have denied a convicted defendant the right to a fair trial, subject to rebuttal by proof that more likely than not the defendant's right to a fair trial was actually and substantially prejudiced. In re Haverty, 101 Wn.2d at 505-06; In re Reismiller, 101 Wn.2d 291, 297, 678 P.2d 323 (1984). Here, the failure of the trial court to direct the jury to elect an act that constituted the crime charged or failure of the prosecutor to elect a specific event was not harmful per se. Hence, we cannot say as a matter of law that this error actually prejudiced Mr. Childress. We therefore must determine whether Mr. Childress meets his burden in demonstrating actual prejudice. Mr. Childress chose not to put on a case in chief to refute the alleged occurrence of either act placed in evidence; the jury was presented with no means to discriminate between the two incidents attested to by the victim. In this respect, Mr. Childress' trial was similar to People v. Deletto, 147 Cal. App.3d 458, 473, 195 Cal. Rptr. 233 (1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 952 (1984), where the prosecution's only evidence was testimony from the victim and defense presented no evidence to allow the jury to distinguish between the alleged acts; the court thus determined that the evidence did not permit the jury to rationally discriminate between the two incidents. The Deletto court held that failure to ensure jury unanimity on a single incident constituting the crime charged was harmless error. Compare Hagler, 97 Wn.2d at 827 (improper burden of proof instruction not prejudicial because proper instruction probably would not have influenced the outcome of the case) with In re Lile, 100 Wn.2d 224, 229, 668 P.2d 581 (1983) (actual prejudice shown because defendant presented evidence to refute guilt and jury was improperly instructed on a presumption). Mr. Childress fails to show that the error in his case actually prejudiced his right to a fair trial. We decline to review the other issues raised by Mr. Childress. His personal restraint petition is denied.