Opinion ID: 2569893
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Breit Standard

Text: {25} As we said in Breit, [r]aising the bar of double jeopardy should be an exceedingly uncommon remedy. 1996-NMSC-067, ¶ 35, 122 N.M. 655, 930 P.2d 792. This remedy applies only in cases of the most severe prosecutorial transgressions. State v. Gonzales, 2002-NMCA-071, ¶ 14, 132 N.M. 420, 49 P.3d 681. In Breit, we diverged from the federal precedent articulated in Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 674-75, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 72 L.Ed.2d 416 (1982), to hold that Article II, Section 15 of the New Mexico Constitution permits a bar to retrial under double jeopardy principles when (1) improper official conduct is so unfairly prejudicial to the defendant that it cannot be cured by means short of a mistrial or a motion for a new trial; (2) if the official knows that the conduct is improper and prejudicial; and (3) if the official either intends to provoke a mistrial or acts in willful disregard of the resulting mistrial, retrial, or reversal. Breit, 1996-NMSC-067, ¶ 32, 122 N.M. 655, 930 P.2d 792. Instituting our narrow expansion of the Kennedy rule, we held: It makes little difference, when the constitutional rights of the defendant are at stake, whether the prosecutor deliberately pursues an improper course of conduct because he means to goad a defendant into demanding a mistrial or because he is willing to accept a mistrial and start over. From the standpoint of a defendant forced to choose between accepting prejudicial errors or undergoing a second trial, the precise degree of the official's mens rea is a matter of indifference. Id. ¶ 35 (quoted authority omitted). {26} Breit focuses on the effect of the prosecutorial misconduct on the defendant, regardless of the prosecutor's intent, because [t]he object of constitutional double-jeopardy provisions is not to punish disreputable prosecutors. The purpose, rather, is to protect the defendant's interest in having the prosecution completed by the original tribunal before whom the trial was commenced. Defendants should be protected from reprosecution once a prosecutor's actions, regardless of motive or intent, rise to such an extreme that a new trial is the only recourse. Id. ¶ 22 (emphasis added)(quoted authority omitted). {27} In Breit, we rejected the subjectivity allowed under Kennedy, 456 U.S. at 674-75, 102 S.Ct. 2083 and instituted this objective standard. Breit, 1996-NMSC-067, ¶¶ 23, 32, 122 N.M. 655, 930 P.2d 792. Therefore, the Breit objective standard is based on the prosecutor's conduct as it manifests at the trial, not the motivation for that conduct. We cannot overemphasize or overstate that this is an objective standard, not a subjective one: the belief of the prosecutor regarding his or her own conduct is irrelevant in this analysis. {28} We begin by outlining the facts developed after our remand, and then evaluate Montoya's trial misconduct using the Breit three-prong test for determining whether a double jeopardy bar to retrial is the proper remedy in this case. Id. ¶ 32. The district court's findings that concern us most are (1) Montoya did not know or can be presumed not to have known that [his] conduct was improper and prejudicial and (2) Montoya had an honest belief that his questions [to Defendant on cross-examination] were proper.