Court Opinion

ID: 9682397
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:10:40.248935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:39.094772
License: Public Domain

DROWOTA, Justice,
dissenting.
As pointed out in the majority opinion, “[pjrior to 1978, the rule that a trial judge in a criminal case must function as a thirteenth juror and weigh the evidence before approving a verdict of guilty was very well established.” The majority then cites the 1927 Manning v. State opinion which states: “it is the duty of the trial judge to consider the weight of the evidence and determine whether or not it establishes the prisoner’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” 155 Tenn. at 284, 292 S.W. 451. The trial judges of this State have competently performed this duty for over fifty years.
The majority opinion agrees with the Court of Criminal Appeals that abandonment of the thirteenth juror rule in Cabbage was unnecessary from a constitutional standpoint. However the majority concludes that the rule should not be reinstated as a part of Tennessee criminal procedure. For reasons hereinafter stated, I believe the rule is constitutionally and procedurally sound, provides a necessary safeguard for our jury trial system, and should be retained in criminal as well as civil cases.
After Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 72 L.Ed.2d 652 (1982), the constitutionality of the thirteenth juror rule was firmly established by the United States Supreme Court. In Tibbs, the Court held that a reversal stemming from the weight of the evidence is distinguishable from a reversal based on the legal sufficiency of the evidence. The prohibition against double jeopardy clearly prohibits only retrial of the latter. Justice O’Connor explained that when a trial judge reverses a conviction on the basis of the weight of the evidence, the situation is analagous to a hung jury. The double jeopardy clause precludes a retrial only when the evidence has been found legally insufficient to support the verdict. On the contrary, disagreement between judge and jury on conflicting evidence “no more signifies acquittal than does disagreement between the jurors themselves.” 457 U.S. at 42, 102 S.Ct. at 2218, 72 L.Ed.2d at 661.
The majority opinion believes that “the distinction between the ‘weight’ of the evidence and the ‘legal sufficiency’ of the evidence has little substance in criminal cases.” I do not agree. Weight of the evidence is a decision trial judges are routinely asked to make in civil as well as criminal cases. It involves among other things decisions about the credibility of witnesses and their demeanor. I also disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the weight of the evidence standard is difficult if not impossible to apply rationally and uniformly in criminal cases. This same argument was flatly rejected by the United States Supreme Court in Tibbs v. Florida, supra. Justice O’Connor noted that trial and appellate judges commonly distinguish between the weight and the sufficiency of the evidence. The Supreme Court found implausible the argument that Tibbs would “erode the demonstrated ability of judges to distinguish legally insufficient evidence *415from evidence that rationally supports a verdict.” 457 U.S. at 45, 102 S.Ct. at 2220, 72 L.Ed.2d at 663.
The distinction between the weight and the legal sufficiency of the evidence is one that our law has always recognized. Different considerations are present in each. In evaluating the legal sufficiency of the evidence, the judge determines whether all the necessary elements of the offense have been made out, whether the defendant’s identity has been established and whether the proof demonstrates the existence of a valid defense. In doing so, the court is required to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, giving the prosecution the benefit of all inferences reasonably to be drawn from the evidence. On appeal, appellate courts are not free to re-evaluate the evidence because the “guilty verdict by the jury, approved by the trial judge, accredits the testimony of the witnesses for the State and resolves all conflicts in favor of the theory of the State.” State v. Grace, 493 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Tenn.1973) (emphasis added). Where the legal sufficiency of the evidence is attacked, the question on appeal is whether a rational trier of fact could have found all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); see also Rule 13(e), Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. In Tibbs, supra, the United States Supreme Court explained that a finding of legal insufficiency “means that the government’s case was so lacking that it should not have even been submitted to a jury.” 457 U.S. at 41, 102 S.Ct. at 2217-18, 72 L.Ed.2d at 660, quoting Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 18, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 2150, 57 L.Ed.2d 1, 12-13 (1978) (emphasis in original).
An inquiry into the weight of the evidence is entirely different. The trial judge does not have to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution; he may weigh the evidence himself as if he were a juror and determine for himself the credibility of the witnesses and the preponderance of the evidence. As the Eighth Circuit stated in United States v. Lincoln, 630 F.2d 1313 (8th Cir.1980), even if the trial judge concludes that “despite the abstract sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, [that] the evidence preponderates sufficiently heavily against the verdict that a serious miscarriage of justice may have occurred, [he] may set aside the verdict, grant a new trial, and submit the issues for determination by another jury.” Id. at 1319.
Under Tennessee law, the thirteenth juror rule was long seen as the best safeguard against jury error. This rule may be the only safeguard available against a miscarriage of justice by the jury. In my opinion the interests of justice requires the reinstatement of the thirteenth juror rule in criminal cases in Tennessee.
For the reasons outlined above, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and remand this case to the trial court for a new trial.
I am authorized to state that Justice FONES concurs in this opinion.