Opinion ID: 1852594
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sham Marriage Exception

Text: The trial court denied appellant's request to invoke the marital privilege in part because both Jamie and appellant had indicated their marriage was motivated by a desire to be shielded from adverse testimony. The court therefore concluded that the interest protected by the privilege that of preserving the integrity of the marriagewas outweighed by the competing interest in ascertaining the truth and presenting all relevant facts to the jury. [12] The trial court relied heavily on federal case law recognizing a sham marriage exception to the privilege against adverse spousal testimony. See, e.g., United States v. Saniti, 604 F.2d 603, 604 (9th Cir.1979). While acknowledging the differences between the federal common law marital privilege and our corresponding statutory privilege, the trial court concluded that Minnesota had followed a similar progression of narrowing the privilege such that the recognition of similar exceptions was appropriate. Appellant argues that the trial court's reliance on federal jurisprudence is misplaced and that the trial court erred by recognizing exceptions to the marital privilege beyond those enacted by the legislature. Appellant further asserts that even if Minnesota's statute did contain a sham marriage exception, it would not apply here because appellant's marriage to Jamie was motivated by reasons other than merely the desire to invoke the privilege. The state, on the other hand, claims that based on the evidence, the trial court reasonably concluded that the marriage of appellant and Jamie was disingenuous and entered into only to insulate the couple from having to testify against each other, initially in relation to the robbery charges and later with respect to Camp's murder. The state asserts that upholding the marital privilege in this case would be absurd and contrary to this court's previous rulings narrowly construing the statute to avoid creating artificial barriers to the truth. See Hannuksela, 452 N.W.2d at 676; see also Larson v. Montpetit, 275 Minn. 394, 402, 147 N.W.2d 580, 586 (1966) ([E]videntiary privileges constitute barriers to the ascertainment of the truth and are therefore to be disfavored and narrowly limited to their purposes   .). While this court has at least implicitly recognized the legitimacy of the marriage as a factor in determining whether to apply the marital privilege, [13] we decline to conclude that the marriage at issue here was so clearly a sham that the privilege should be denied on that basis. We recognize that the record reveals that one of the primary reasons, perhaps the only reason, that Jamie entered into marriage was to take advantage of the statute prohibiting adverse spousal testimony. But the privilege rests with appellant, and appellant appears to have been motivated by several factors, among them perhaps the most conventionalhis affection for Jamie. He argues that his actions as well as his words prove his motive for marriagehe began living with Jamie shortly after they met, he attended premarital classes with her at church long before the robbery, he adopted one of her children, he fathered his own child with Jamie, and he vainly shouldered full blame for the robbery to prevent her incarceration. A review of our case law suggests that a strong showing is required to conclude that the marriage protected by the privilege is indeed so empty as to render the purpose of the privilege valueless. In State v. Frey, we concluded that the marital privilege statute protected a defendant husband from adverse spousal testimony even where a husband was being prosecuted for a premarital crime against his wife, [14] 76 Minn, at 530, 79 N.W. at 519, and in State v. Feste we held that a man contesting charges brought by his wife prior to their marriage that he was the father of her illegitimate child could preclude his wife from testifying against him at trial based on the marital privilege. [15] 205 Minn, at 76, 285 N.W. at 87. In no case have we ruled that a marriage is not worthy of the protection of the marital privilege, a statutory rule engrained in our state's jurisprudence well over a century ago. See Pub. Stat. c. 84, § 53 (1859); Huot v. Wise, 27 Minn, at 69-70, 6 N.W. at 426. We conclude that on this record, the trial court abused its discretion in ruling that appellant's marriage was a sham.