Opinion ID: 487448
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Subsequent Developments in Wisconsin Law

Text: 51 In a case decided during the pendency of this appeal, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals expressly declined to reconsider Kirby 's holding on great bodily harm. State v. Webie, (Wis.Ct.App.1987) [--- Wis.2d ----, 405 N.W.2d 83 (Table) ]. At the same time, the court overruled other aspects of the Kirby decision. Id. at 11. Recognizing that our ultimate concern is with Wisconsin law as it stood at the time of Cole's offense, not with any subsequent changes in the law, we will examine the Webie opinion solely for the purpose of determining whether it confirms or casts doubt on our interpretation of Kirby. 52 Factually, Webie is nearly indistinguishable from Kirby. In both cases, the defendant was charged with mayhem, the trial court instructed the jury on injury and endangering safety as lesser included offenses of mayhem, and the defendant was acquitted of mayhem and injury but convicted of endangering safety. In Webie, as in Kirby, the court was required to find the essential elements of these three offenses to determine whether injury or endangering safety were in fact lesser included offenses of mayhem. 53 The Webie court began its analysis by refusing to reexamine Kirby 's addition of the 'great bodily harm' requirement to the 'cutting or mutilation' element of mayhem. Slip op. at 7. Rather, the court assumed that the mayhem statute continues to incorporate the unexpressed great bodily harm requirement. Id. at 8. Nevertheless, the court concluded that injury and endangering safety are not lesser included offenses of mayhem. Both injury and endangering safety require proof of conduct that is dangerous to life and may cause death, the court found; great bodily harm, by contrast, can occur without endangering the victim's life. The court therefore rejected Kirby 's assumption that under all circumstances great bodily harm equals or includes conduct regardless of life. Id. at 7. Accordingly, the court overruled Kirby 's holding that injury and endangering safety are lesser included offenses of mayhem and reversed the defendant's conviction. Id. at 11. 54 Webie simply confirms our reading of Kirby. It makes clear that Kirby 's statements concerning the elements of mayhem are not dicta, but part of the holding of the case. While Webie overrules the lesser included offense part of the Kirby holding, it leaves the great bodily harm requirement--which is the only part of the Kirby holding relevant here--intact. Even if the Wisconsin courts or legislature were to repudiate Kirby 's holding on great bodily harm at some future date, no such change in the law could be applied retroactively to Cole, for reasons we have already explained. For the definitive statement of Wisconsin law pertinent to Cole's challenge, therefore, we must still look to Kirby. 7 VI. Instructional Error as a Constitutional Violation 55 We have found that Cole was convicted of mayhem without any jury instruction being given on great bodily harm, which is an essential element of mayhem under Wisconsin law. Cole contends that a conviction under these circumstances violates the fourteenth amendment's due process clause. To prevail on this claim, Cole must carry a heavy burden. Instructional error will not support a petition for federal habeas relief unless it is shown not merely that the instruction is undesirable, erroneous, or even 'universally condemned,'  Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 146, 94 S.Ct. 396, 400, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973), but that the ailing instruction by itself so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process. Id. at 147, 94 S.Ct. at 400; Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 154, 97 S.Ct. 1730, 1736, 52 L.Ed.2d 203 (1977). We hold that the complete failure to give any jury instruction on an essential element of the offense charged, under circumstances indicating that the jury was not otherwise informed of the necessity of proof of the element, is a violation of due process. 56
57 State and federal courts alike have long recognized that the failure to give any instruction on an essential element of a criminal offense is fundamental error, requiring reversal of the defendant's conviction. See, e.g., United States v. Howard, 506 F.2d 1131 (2d Cir.1974); Byrd v. United States, 342 F.2d 939 (D.C.Cir.1965); United States v. Greichunos, 572 F.Supp. 220 (N.D.Ill.1983); C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure Crim.2d Sec. 487 (1982) (collecting federal cases); 75 Am.Jur.2d Trial Secs. 710-18 (1974) (collecting state cases). Of the many cases standing for this principle however, only a few have rested on a federal constitutional ground of decision. See, e.g., United States v. Voss, 787 F.2d 393 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 286, 93 L.Ed.2d 261 (1986); Batiste v. Blackburn, 786 F.2d 704 (5th Cir.1986); Potts v. Zant, 734 F.2d 526 (11th Cir.1984), cert. granted and judgment vacated on other grounds, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3328, 92 L.Ed.2d 734 (1986); Glenn v. Dallman, 686 F.2d 418 (6th Cir.1982); Mills v. Shepherd, 445 F.Supp. 1231 (W.D.N.C.1978), aff'd mem., 605 F.2d 1203 (4th Cir.1979). Nevertheless, the nearly universal acceptance of the rule in both state and federal courts establishes the value to the defendant of this procedural safeguard. Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 637, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 2389, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980) (discussing defendant's right to receive lesser included offense instruction). 58 A Sixth Circuit case, Glenn v. Dallman, 686 F.2d 418 (6th Cir.1982), clearly holds that the rule is constitutionally based. In Glenn, the state trial court's jury instructions completely omitted one of the elements of the offense of aggravated burglary. As here, the disputed element was the product of a state appellate court's construction of the criminal statute. After the petitioner lost in the state courts, his case came to the Sixth Circuit via habeas corpus. The court of appeals, finding that constitutional error had occurred, granted the writ. Where a jury sits as the finder of fact in a criminal trial, the court reasoned, the court's instructions to the jury concerning the necessary elements of the crime charged are the only means of assuring that the State is put to its burden of establishing every element of the crime. Id. at 421. As such, the complete failure to instruct on an element of aggravated burglary deprived the defendant of due process and his right to a jury trial. Id. The court further held that the error was not harmless because it was not clear that, if properly instructed, a rational juror would have had to return a guilty verdict. Id. at 422. 59 We agree with the Glenn court's analysis. Once a state deems a fact essential to the commission of an offense, as the Kirby court did with respect to great bodily harm, the state must provide fair procedures for holding the prosecution to its burden. See Rose v. Clark, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3101, 3114, 92 L.Ed.2d 460 (1986) (Blackmun, J., dissenting) (The Framers chose to protect defendants, not primarily by regulating the substance of the criminal law, but by establishing certain trial procedures to be followed in a criminal case.). At a minimum this means informing the jury of each of the required elements of the government's proof. Without an instruction that performs this minimal task, the defendant's right to a jury determination of his guilt or innocence--a right protected by the fourteenth amendment's due process clause, Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968)--is little more than a matter of constitutional theory.
60 Although the Supreme Court has never been squarely faced with the question presented in Glenn, its precedents strongly support the Glenn result. Indeed, every federal court to consider the question since the Court decided In Re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970), has agreed that a conviction procured without any jury instruction on an essential element of the offense is constitutionally invalid. 8 61 Winship held that the due process clause protects an accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged. Id. at 364, 90 S.Ct. at 1073. In several key cases following Winship, the Court has made clear that due process is violated when jury instructions given at a criminal trial have the effect of easing the prosecution's burden of persuasion. We believe that the instructions given at Cole's trial had precisely this effect. Worse yet, the instructions had the effect of directing a verdict for the prosecution on an element of the offense, a result the Constitution absolutely condemns. 62 Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979), is particularly instructive in this regard. Sandstrom held that in a case in which intent was an element of the crime charged, a jury instruction stating that the law presumes that a person intends the ordinary consequences of his voluntary acts was unconstitutional. 442 U.S. at 524, 99 S.Ct. at 2459. Because the jury could have interpreted the instruction as establishing a conclusive presumption on one element of the crime, the instruction conflicted with the presumption of innocence and invaded the fact-finding province of the jury. Id. at 523, 99 S.Ct. at 2458. Alternatively, the Court found, because the jury could have interpreted the instruction as shifting to the defendant the burden of persuasion on the question of intent, the instruction violated the corollary to Winship developed in Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975); that is, that a state may not shift the burden of persuasion on an element of an offense to the accused by presuming that element upon proof of other elements. 442 U.S. at 524, 99 S.Ct. at 2459. The Court recognized that some jurors might have interpreted the instruction as describing no more than a permissive inference or a rebuttable presumption, id. at 519, 99 S.Ct. at 2456, either of which would have been constitutionally unobjectionable; nevertheless, the possibility that a reasonable juror could have given the presumption either conclusive or burden-shifting effect was enough to invalidate the defendant's conviction. Id. at 524, 99 S.Ct. at 2459. See also Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985) (applying essentially similar analysis); Connecticut v. Johnson, 460 U.S. 73, 103 S.Ct. 969, 74 L.Ed.2d 823 (1983) (plurality opinion) (same). 63 Clearly, if a Sandstrom -type instruction is invalid because it may be interpreted as describing either a conclusive or a burden-shifting presumption on an element of the offense, an instruction that completely omits an element of the offense must also be invalid. In the case of a conclusive presumption, a jury may at least ignore the instruction or rest its verdict on trial evidence rather than the presumption. But when the jury is never told that the element forms a necessary part of the crime, the matter is taken out of its hands entirely. See Rose v. Clark, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3103, 3107 & n. 8, 92 L.Ed.2d 460 (1986). The result is exactly the same as if the trial court had directed a verdict on part of the offense--and directed verdicts are of course impermissible in criminal cases. Id. 106 S.Ct. at 3106; United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 572-73, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 1355-56, 51 L.Ed.2d 642 (1977); Carpenters v. United States, 330 U.S. 395, 408-09, 67 S.Ct. 775, 782-83, 91 L.Ed. 973 (1947). Similarly, a burden-shifting instruction at least allows the defendant to prevail if he meets the particular burden; when no instruction is given, all the defendant's evidence on the issue is rendered irrelevant. Cf. Cool v. United States, 409 U.S. 100, 93 S.Ct. 354, 34 L.Ed.2d 335 (1972). Again, the result is the same as a directed verdict. 64 Compared to Sandstrom, this is an easy case. The Sandstrom instruction was ambiguous; recognizing the possibility that the jurors gave the instruction a permissible interpretation, the Court nevertheless struck down the conviction because of the risk that they did not. This case, by contrast, calls for no speculation as to the presence of jury confusion. Here the complete omission of any instruction on great bodily harm guaranteed that the jury did not find that the government had carried its burden. If Winship means anything, it means that a conviction such as Cole's cannot stand. 65 Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 97 S.Ct. 1730, 52 L.Ed.2d 203 (1977), which the dissent relies on, actually supports our conclusion. In Henderson, the petitioner challenged the trial court's failure to give an instruction explaining the element of causation in New York's murder statute. The court read the statute and the indictment, each of which referred explicitly to causation, to the jury, and both counsel stressed the causation issue in their arguments. Id. at 153, 97 S.Ct. at 1736. On these facts, the Court concluded that no Winship violation was shown because it was clear that the jury was aware of the causation requirement and had made a finding of causation. Id. at 153-54, 97 S.Ct. at 1736. The clear implication of Henderson 's analysis was that constitutional error would have occurred if the jury did not have any reason to be aware of the causation requirement. 66 In contrast to Henderson, this is not a case in which the jury could have surmised that some element of the offense left undefined in the instructions had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Henderson was a defective instruction case like Sandstrom; this is a no instruction case. Neither court nor counsel at Cole's trial ever so much as mentioned the great bodily harm requirement. Indeed, no one present in the courtroom seems to have been aware of it. Nothing else in the instructions or arguments cured the defect. Consequently, the jury had no way of knowing that the victim's injuries had to reach a certain level of severity before Cole could be convicted of mayhem. As we explain in the section that follows, these facts raise a grave risk that Cole's mayhem conviction was factually as well as legally erroneous. 9 C. Harmless Error 67 Like the Glenn court, we need not decide whether the complete failure to instruct on a necessary element of the state's proof can ever be harmless error. 686 F.2d at 421 n. 2; cf. Rose v. Clark, 106 S.Ct. at 3108-09) (Sandstrom violation can be harmless error); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 320 n. 14, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2790 n. 14, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (failure to instruct on beyond a reasonable doubt standard cannot be harmless error). It is enough on the facts of this case to hold that the omission of a great bodily harm instruction may have contributed to the verdict and that Cole's mayhem conviction therefore must be reversed. 68 Section 939.22(14) of the Wisconsin Statutes defines great bodily harm as bodily injury which creates a high probability of death, or which causes serious permanent disfigurement, or which causes a permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ or other serious bodily injury. The Wisconsin courts take the seriousness requirement seriously. In Flores v. State, 76 Wis.2d 50, 250 N.W.2d 720 (1977), the defendant was charged with aggravated battery. The victim testified that he had lost two teeth, received 30 stitches to close a cut, was unconscious for more than an hour, was in intensive care for two and one-half days, was in the hospital for nine days, and continued to experience pain in his ankle. 250 N.W.2d at 723. Nevertheless, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that the trial court erred in finding great bodily harm as a matter of law and refusing to submit a lesser included offense to the jury. Id. at 724-25. 69 A reasonable jury instructed on this body of law could have acquitted Cole of mayhem. Cole's victim suffered three cuts requiring eight stitches. She spent a few hours in the emergency room where she received a shot. She now has two scars and occasionally feels pain in her hand when driving. These injuries are no doubt very real to Ms. Johnson and we in no way make light of them when we suggest that they may not constitute great bodily harm. As the Instructions Committee recognized when it revised its mayhem instruction, great bodily harm means serious, often life-threatening, bodily injury. See State v. Webie, slip op. at 9-10. A jury could have found that Ms. Johnson's injuries did not rise to this level. 70 Rather than compelling a guilty verdict, the evidence of injury in this case might be insufficient as a matter of law to establish great bodily harm. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). We need not decide this question, however; since the constitutional error was not harmless, it makes no difference whether the evidence was sufficient to support a guilty verdict or not. Either way, we must reverse. See Voss, 787 F.2d at 398, Glenn, 686 F.2d at 421. 10