Court Opinion

ID: 9514153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:44:53.601957+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:12.653698
License: Public Domain

SANDSTROM, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 29] Because the majority’s interpretation is unreasonable and inconsistent, I respectfully dissent.
I
[¶ 30] The Constitution of North Dakota preserves the right to a jury trial in cases for which it existed at statehood. Smith v. Kunert, 17 N.D. 120, 115 N.W. 76, 77 (1907). “The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate.” N.D. Const. art. I, § 13. At statehood, the law of Dakota Territory, which became the law of North Dakota, provided for a jury trial for serious, “non-petty,” violations of municipal ordinances. See C.L. § 937 (1887). On the basis of this interpretation, which is consistent with the interpretation of the United’ States Supreme Court and other courts as discussed below, Riemers is not entitled to a jury trial.
*642[¶ 31] The majority, on the other hand, looks at the words of the statute and comes to a different conclusion. The statute provides:
Cases before the city justice arising under the city ordinances shall be tried and determined by the justice without the intervention of a jury except in cases where under the provisions of the ordinances of the city imprisonment for a longer period than ten days is made a part of the penalty, or the maximum fine shall be twenty dollars or over, and the defendant shall demand a trial by jury before the commencement of such trial....
C.L. § 937 (1887) (emphasis added). Although this reflected the difference between serious and petty offenses at that time, and $20 in 1887 was the equivalent of approximately $400 today, see State v. Wikle, 291 N.W.2d 792, 794 (S.D.1980), the majority says we must take $20 as the literal requirement.
[¶ 32] But if we are to take the statutory language literally, it applies only to “cases before the city justice.” This judicial official has been abolished. See 1889 Dakota Territory Sess. Laws, ch. 33, § 5 (changing the term “city justice” to “police justice”); 1965 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 286 (abolishing the position of police magistrate and providing municipal judges with exclusive jurisdiction over municipal ordinance violations).
[¶ 33] If we take the entire sentence literally, Riemers is not entitled to relief because his case is not before a city justice. If we treat the entire provision using its modern equivalents, Riemers is not entitled to a jury trial because the maximum fine is a petty amount.
[¶ 34] Only by applying one rule (modern equivalent) to the first half of the sentence and the other rule (literal language) to the second half of the sentence does the majority reach its conclusion.
II
A
[¶ 35] The analysis of the United States Supreme Court is consistent with the conclusion Riemers is not entitled to a jury trial.
[¶ 36] The United States Supreme Court has held that the constitutional right to a jury trial in criminal prosecutions extends only to the prosecution of serious crimes, as opposed to petty offenses. See District of Columbia v. Clawans, 300 U.S. 617, 57 S.Ct. 660, 81 L.Ed. 843 (1937); District of Columbia v. Colts, 282 U.S. 63, 51 S.Ct. 52, 75 L.Ed. 177 (1930); Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540, 8 S.Ct. 1301, 32 L.Ed. 223 (1888). The Supreme Court has declined to establish a precise line of demarcation for petty offenses, see Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968), but a plurality of the Court has held that a crime is not “petty” when the defendant faces incarceration of more than six months. Baldwin v. New York, 399 U.S. 66, 90 S.Ct. 1886, 26 L.Ed.2d 437 (1970). That rule was extended slightly in Blanton v. North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538, 109 S.Ct. 1289, 103 L.Ed.2d 550 (1989), in which the Supreme Court held a defendant accused of a crime that does not have a possible penalty of six or more months’ incarceration is entitled to a jury trial only if he can demonstrate that any additional statutory penalties, viewed in conjunction with the maximum period of incarceration, are so severe that they clearly reflect a legislative determination that the offense is a serious one.
B
[¶ 37] The analysis of the South Dakota Supreme Court in interpreting the same *643statutory language and similar constitutional language is consistent with the conclusion Riemers is not entitled to a jury trial.
[¶ 38] South Dakota, in addition to North Dakota, was governed by the Compiled Laws of the Territory of Dakota prior to 1889. As the majority notes, “Because both states were governed by the Compiled Laws immediately before statehood, the inviolate right to a jury trial should theoretically be the same in both.”
[¶ 39] In State v. Wikle, 291 N.W.2d 792 (S.D.1980), the South Dakota Supreme Court held a defendant was not entitled to a jury trial when the violation of a city ordinance provided for a maximum penalty of $100 and no possibility of incarceration. The court, overruling City of Brookings v. Roberts, 88 S.D. 623, 226 N.W.2d 380 (1975), stated that even if it were to accept the analysis of legislative history in Roberts, it “could not give literal endorsement to an 1887 law that referred to $20 as the demarcation line for jury trials.” Wikle, 291 N.W.2d at 794. The court stated the law was written at a time when traffic laws were nonexistent and “the purchasing power of a dollar was probably twenty times or more what it is today.” Id. It concluded, “The rule of law that incorporated existing statutory law into our state constitution upon its adoption should be followed in matters of legal principle, but it becomes absurd when followed literally in regard to monetary amounts.” Id. The court noted that the United States Supreme Court has held petty offenses do not require a jury trial, and concluded an offense with a maximum possible fine of $100 cannot be viewed as serious. Finally, the court expressed its approval of the concurrences in Roberts, stating that for any violation of a state law or city ordinance for which a direct penalty of incarceration can be imposed, the accused is entitled to a jury trial.
[¶ 40] In State v. Auen, 342 N.W.2d 236 (S.D.1984), the South Dakota Supreme Court extended its Wikle opinion by holding that in prosecutions of offenses with maximum authorized jail sentences of less than six months, a court may deny a jury trial request if the court assures the defendant that no jail sentence will be imposed.
C
[¶ 41] The South Dakota Supreme Court also considered the Alaska Supreme Court decision which provides analysis consistent with the conclusion that Riem-ers is not entitled to a jury trial.
[¶ 42] In Baker v. City of Fairbanks, 471 P.2d 386 (Alaska 1970), the Alaska Supreme Court considered the right to jury trials for city ordinance violations. The court noted there “is nothing ambiguous” about the state constitutional language granting a jury trial in “all criminal prosecutions.” Baker, 471 P.2d at 397. The court noted that the historical development influencing the concept of what constitutes a petty offense was examined by Frankfurter and Corcoran in Petty Federal Offenses and the Constitutional Guaranty of Trial by Jury, 39 Harv. L. Rev. 917 (1926). Id. at 391. Frankfurter and Corcoran surveyed the legal history of offenses handled in a summary fashion in England and in the American colonies and noted that while the Constitution refers to “all crimes” and the Sixth Amendment refers to “all criminal prosecutions,” there were certain offenses, familiar to the framers of our federal and state constitutions, which were considered to fall within an implied exception to the constitutional guarantee. Id.
[¶ 43] The Alaska Supreme Court held that in any “criminal prosecution,” which it defined as one in which a direct penalty *644could be incarceration, whether under state law or for violation of a city ordinance, the accused is entitled to a jury trial. Id. at 401-02. The court also included offenses that may result in the loss of a valuable license, such as a driver’s license or a professional license. Id. Finally, the court included offenses which, even if incarceration is not a possible punishment, “still connote criminal conduct in the traditional sense of the term.” Id. The court specifically excluded “such relatively innocuous offenses as wrongful parking of motor vehicles, minor traffic violations, and violations which relate to the regulation of property, sanitation, building codes, fire codes, and other legal measures which can be considered regulatory rather than criminal.” Id. (emphasis added).
Ill
[¶ 44] I would affirm, concluding Riem-ers has no right to a jury trial.
[¶ 45] MARY MUEHLEN MARING, J., concurs.