Opinion ID: 877065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Upholding the Convictions Adds to the Constitutional Defects Inherent in the Affirmance

Text: I have stated my case as to why the assault convictions must be reversed. In the usual dissent, I suppose this would be sufficient, but because the majority analysis creates new constitutional defects, I feel compelled to embark upon an analysis of their grounds for upholding the convictions. First, I would preface my analysis with the statement that the majority's affirmance here is a good example of what happens when well-defined and well-settled principles of appellate review are ignored in the desire to uphold a conviction. Here, however, the problems created are of constitutional dimension, and therefore cannot be so lightly ignored. Second, I preface my analysis with the conclusions I draw from the majority opinion. In determining on the merits, that defendant is in fact guilty of the crime charged, the function of the trial judge to make factual determinations based upon an application of the right law is usurped. A corollary to this is that we have, by determining the facts on the merits, abdicated our position as a court of review and have become both the trier-of-fact and appellate court rolled into one. Finally, by deciding an essential fact on the merits that may not have been decided by the trial court, we have stripped defendant of his constitutional right to have his guilt or innocence determined at the trial. The majority cites three cases for the ostensible purpose of laying the groundwork for the legal analysis leading to the affirmance. These cases are wholly inapplicable both factually and legally to the fundamental issue raised here. First, the majority cites State v. Duncan (1979), Mont., 593 P.2d 1026, 36 St.Rep. 748, 753, as holding that a trial judge in a judge-tried criminal case is under no statutory duty, except in death penalty cases (section 46-18-306, MCA), to make findings, but merely obliged to enter a general verdict of innocence or guilt. Whatever the holding may be, the defendant does not contend here that the judge had a statutory duty to enter findings and conclusions, nor does he contend that the judge had a statutory duty to enter more than a general verdict of innocence or guilt. In fact, the trial judge entered both findings and conclusions here, but they are described by the majority, as the bare bones kind. Furthermore, the contention in Duncan was not that the trial judge applied the wrong law, or may have applied the wrong law in deciding any of the issues. But the contention here, is that the trial judge may have applied the wrong law in deciding the statutory without consent element of the charges. The majority can derive no support from Duncan. Second, the majority cites State v. Boe (1963), 143 Mont. 141, 388 P.2d 372, for the abstractly vacuous rule that error of the District Court is not presumed. Translated, this rule means that a party appealing a case to this Court must convince at least a majority of its members that the trial court erred and that the error adversely affected or could have adversely affected the judgment. It obviously would not be a sound rule of judicial administration to require the winning party in District Court to have the initial burden of convincing this Court that the judgment should be upheld. Rather, the initial burden should be placed on the losing party. I note, furthermore, that the majority has not demonstrated application of Boe to resolution of the issue presented here. Finally, however, the fact is that the defendant here has clearly demonstrated prejudicial error committed by the trial judge. The trial judge has convicted defendant of two felonies and sentenced him to prison, and yet has not told defendant which law he applied to resolution of the consent issue. What could be more prejudicial than that? Third, the majority cites State v. Stoddard (1966), 147 Mont. 402, 412 P.2d 827, as embodying the rule that every presumption is in favor of a judgment of conviction on appeal if any substantial evidence supports it. (Emphasis added.) This is merely another way of stating that if substantial evidence supports a judgment of conviction, the conviction will be sustained as against a contention that substantial evidence does not exist. This is not exactly an edifying rule, to be classified as a legal gem. It does not mean, however, that a judgment will be sustained even if there is substantial evidence, if error occurred during the trial that affects defendant's right to a fair trial. Applied here, the question is not whether there is substantial evidence to uphold the conviction on the basis that the boy did not consent in any event; the question is whether the trial judge applied the right law in deciding the question of whether or not there was substantial evidence. The issue here is not a question of evidence, it is a question of law. These three cases, Duncan, Boe, and Stoddard, supra, fail to provide good window-dressing for the majority analysis. After citing Duncan, Boe, and Stoddard, supra, the majority next states the reasons for affirming the assault convictions: The conclusions of law reached by the District Court could be construed to mean that the court found lack of the victim's consent from his incapacity as a ten-year old to consent, or that in any event the boy did not consent. Conclusions of law reached by a trial court do not enjoy the same level of inviolability that findings of fact are accorded on appeal (see e.g., Rule 52(a), M.R.Civ.P.) This Court is in at least an equal position with the District Court to determine the appropriate conclusion of law to be reached from the facts found in a case. Since we have found that there was sufficient evidence adduced to support a conclusion that the boy did not in fact consent to defendant's unlawful acts, all the presumptions are in favor of the judgment of conviction, as we have shown. We therefore sustain the conviction on the sexual assault counts. (Emphasis added.) If this opinion says what I think it says, translated, it would read something like this: Only one theory of consent is properly applicable to this case; but the findings and conclusions are so vague that we cannot tell which theory of consent the trial judge actually applied to a determination of the consent issue. It does not matter however, which theory he applied to this determination, because we have determined that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the only proper theory of consent. This is the conclusion of law that the trial judge should have reached  and if he applied the law properly he would have decided the same as we decide. Because the evidence is sufficient to support a finding that the boy did not in fact consent, even though we do not know that the trial judge made this same finding, we will make the appropriate finding and conclusion for him and thus uphold the convictions. The convictions are therefore affirmed. Even assuming that I am partially inaccurate in my translation, this holding, particularly in a criminal case, is astounding. It strikes at the heart of our trial system. First, the holding usurps the function of the trial court  it is the trial judge and the trial judge alone, who has the right to determine if without consent was proved. We have no right to tell the trial court what conclusion to reach, and we have no right, as we have done here, to reach that conclusion for the trial court and affirm the convictions. Second, as a corollary to usurping the function of the trial court by deciding the fact of without consent for the trial court, we have abdicated our function of appellate review. We are here to determine if the evidence is sufficient to justify the trial court's findings. We are not here to make the findings and conclusions for the trial court. Third, as an appellate court, we have effectively granted a directed verdict in a criminal case by not only telling the trial court what conclusions to reach, but by making that determination ourselves. That is constitutionally prohibited. I wholeheartedly agree with the majority statement that the conclusions of law can be interpreted to mean that the trial judge decided the statutory element of without consent by application of the right law or by application of the wrong law. That, of course, is the issue here: which law did he apply? I agree, at least to an extent, that this Court is not hamstrung by the conclusions of law reached by a trial judge when reviewing the case on appeal. This must be qualified by stating that the conclusions of law based on the credibility of witnesses or demeanor of witnesses, must obviously be given more weight than those reached from cold, objective evidentiary facts. It must be further qualified by stating that the rule is not the same in criminal cases as it is in civil cases. One of our functions in reviewing cases is to determine whether the findings made can lead to the conclusions of law entered. But we have no right to tell a judge in a criminal case, sitting as the trier of guilt or innocence, what findings to make or what conclusions of law to make in the process of reaching the ultimate question of guilt or innocence. That is solely the prerogative of the trial judge, just as it would be the sole prerogative of a jury in a case tried to a jury. Unfortunately, that is just what we have done here, and that is where I part company with the majority. A determination by this Court that the evidence is sufficient to support factual determination and ultimate conclusion that the sexual contact was without consent, does not ipso facto permit this Court to affirm the convictions. Such a ruling means only that the defendant is not entitled, as a matter of law, to a reversal and dismissal of the charges. The ruling on the sufficiency of the evidence had the effect of telling the defendant only that he was not entitled to a dismissal. But whether the convictions can be affirmed, even though the evidence is sufficient to prevent a dismissal, is entirely another question. An affirmance, or a reversal ordering a new trial, depends on the underlying factual determinations and conclusions of law actually made by the trial judge, rather than on the findings and conclusions that this Court feels he should have made. If we can determine from the findings and conclusions that the trial judge actually decided that the boy did not consent, we can affirm the judgment. But we cannot do so, and the majority admits that we cannot do so. To comply with the mandates of In Re Winship, and Chapman v. California, supra, an affirmance requires this Court to state a belief beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) the trial judge actually decided by application of the right law, that defendant did not in fact consent, and (2) that the failure to set forth the legal basis for his findings and conclusions was therefore harmless error. That is a declaration I am unwilling to make. I believe that the majority would also be unwilling to make that declaration, if it had properly addressed the underlying constitutional issues presented by the ambiguous findings and conclusions. Here, however, the majority went a step beyond an affirmance of the trial court's judgment. Admitting that the findings and conclusions are ambiguous, the majority simply determines that the evidence supported a certain finding and such being the case, it would enter the appropriate conclusion of law that the defendant did not in fact consent. In doing so, the court trammelled over some fundamental rights. If we assume that the trial judge applied the wrong law in deciding the consent issue (and there is more than a reasonable doubt to support this assumption), we have no right, in virtually the same breath, to affirm the convictions because the evidence, nonetheless, proved actual nonconsent. Proved to whom: to the trial judge, or to us? We are effectively affirming a conviction that first requires a statutory factual determination that the trial court may not have in fact made. Unless we, as an appellate court, as opposed to the trial judge, have the right to determine guilt or innocence, this cannot be. An axiomatic constitutional principle in all criminal cases is that guilt or innocence must be decided at the trial level by either the jury, or by the judge where a defendant has waived a jury trial. In the case of a jury trial this basic principle inheres in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and in 1972 Mont.Const., Art. II, §§ 24 and 26. Both provisions guarantee that only a jury can decide guilt or innocence. That is why a trial judge presiding over a jury trial has no right, no matter how compelling the evidence, to direct a jury to find a defendant guilty. Although here the defendant waived a jury trial and elected to have a trial judge decide his guilt or innocence, a necessary corollary to these constitutional provisions, is that where a jury trial is waived only the trial judge can determine guilt or innocence. In such event, the judge assumes the same role as the jury and he alone has the prerogative to decide guilt or innocence. Where is the law that gives this Court the right to usurp that function? The only way that I can see where this Court would have the right to determine defendant's guilt or innocence, as we have done here, would be if defendant in his waiver of jury trial expressly consented to this Court assuming this function. Such is not the case here  defendant agreed only to have the trial judge, rather than a jury, decide his guilt or innocence. Based on the foregoing examination of the law, this Court undoubtedly had no right to decide this case by making the following declaration: ... This Court is in at least an equal position with the District Court to determine the appropriate conclusion of law to be reached from the facts in a case. Since we have found that there was sufficient evidence adduced to support a conclusion that the boy did not in fact consent to the defendant's unlawful acts, all the presumptions are in favor of the judgment of conviction, as we have shown. We therefore sustain the conviction on the sexual assault counts. This declaration of guilt has usurped the function of the trial judge, abdicated our position as an appellate court, and denied defendant his constitutional right to have the trial judge, by application of the right law, decide his guilt or innocence. We can, of course, determine if the trial judge, based on the evidence presented, made a conclusion of law that is supportable by the evidence. But we cannot, based on the evidence in the trial record before us on appeal, make the appropriate conclusion of law for the trial court where by doing so we are deciding a fact essential to a valid conviction. Here, we decided a fact essential to a valid conviction  the statutory element of without consent. We decided this fact by declaring that  the boy did not in fact consent  and yet we do not know whether the trial judge decided this same fact. For all we know the trial judge decided only that the boy was legally incapable of consenting, and thus never reached the question of whether the boy did or did not in fact consent. Whether the boy did or did not in fact consent, is a question solely for the trial judge  to be decided at a new trial. I would reverse the assault convictions and order a new trial so that defendant is tried by an application of the right law to the issue of consent.