Court Opinion

ID: 9522308
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:22:16.212116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:30.661080
License: Public Domain

ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice
(concurring specially).
SPECIAL CONCURRENCE
I concur in the result reached by the majority and its analysis of the issues except for its conclusion that the forfeiture doctrine does not apply to consideration of a Blakely error. I conclude that, despite the fundamental importance of the Blakely right, consideration of a Blakely error can be forfeited for appeal by a defendant’s failure to preserve the error at the district court. It is important to note at the outset that the forfeiture doctrine does not necessarily foreclose appellate review of a forfeited error. We may address a forfeited error when the interests of justice require its consideration and addressing the error would not work an unfair surprise on a party.1 State v. Sorenson, 441 N.W.2d 455, 457 (Minn.1989); see Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 11, 29.04, subd. 11. Additionally, under Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02, we have the discretion to consider a forfeited error if it is plain error affecting substantial rights. State v. Griller, 583 N.W.2d 736, 740 (Minn.1998).
The majority acknowledges that consideration of most errors is forfeited for purposes of appeal by failing to object in the district court.2 But when reaching its conclusion that Osborne is entitled to relief, the majority asserts that errors relating to rights that cannot be waived by silence at the district court are not forfeited for appeal by failing to object. I appreciate the majority’s concern that Osborne did not affirmatively waive his right to jury trial on the sentencing factors. I also understand and appreciate the majority’s concern that the forfeiture doctrine can, as it does in this case, require a party to object *449to an error before the rule of law expressly articulating the error has been announced. Nevertheless, my analysis leads me to conclude that the district court’s failure to elicit a waiver of the right to jury trial on sentencing factors does not, without more, mean that Osborne has preserved the error for purposes of appeal. Further, I note that other defendants who received upward sentencing departures before the Blakely rule was announced have objected on Sixth Amendment grounds and preserved a Blakely error for appeal. See, e.g., Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004); State v. Barker, 705 N.W.2d 768, 773 (Minn.2005); State v. Shattuck, 704 N.W.2d 131,134 (Minn.2005).
The Seventh Circuit has concluded, and I agree, that waiver and forfeiture are analytically distinct concepts. United States v. Richardson, 238 F.3d 837, 841 (7th Cir.2001), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 1057, 121 S.Ct. 2206, 149 L.Ed.2d 1035 (2001). In Richardson, that court said “[t]he distinction between waiver and forfeiture is important to the operation of an adversary system * * *. It is one thing to require judges to be alert to oversights that may affect substantial rights, and another to require them to override the clearly expressed wish of a party or his lawyer, which may be backed by excellent strategic reasons, not to invoke a particular right.” Id. Because there is a distinction between waiver and forfeiture, a conclusion that a right was not knowingly and intelligently waived at the district court does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that appellate consideration of an error relating to that right was not forfeited. See id.
The majority relies on Minn. R.Crim. P. 26.01, subd. 1(2)(a), and the fundamental importance of a Blakely right to conclude that a Blakely error is exempt from normal forfeiture rules. This conclusion appears to engraft a right to appeal onto the right to jury trial. But it is well established that while a defendant has a constitutionally guaranteed right to a jury trial, the same defendant does not necessarily have a constitutional right to an appeal. U.S. Const. amend. VI; Martinez v. Court of Appeal of California, 528 U.S. 152, 159-60, 120 S.Ct. 684, 145 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000) (“The Sixth Amendment identifies the basic rights that the accused shall enjoy in ‘all criminal prosecutions.’ They are presented strictly as rights that are available in preparation for trial and at the trial itself. The Sixth Amendment does not include any right to appeal.”); Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 611, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974) (“[Wjhile no one would agree that the State may simply dispense with the trial stage of proceedings without a criminal defendant’s consent, it is clear that the State need not provide any appeal at all.” (citing McKane v. Durston, 153 U.S. 684, 14 S.Ct. 913, 38 L.Ed. 867 (1894))).
At this point it is important to note that the United States Supreme Court has yet to specifically address the forfeitability of an alleged Blakely error. But in a related context, the Court has expressly held that a defendant forfeits appellate consideration of a violation of the right to jury trial on an element of a crime by failing to object at the district court. Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997). In Johnson, the district court — in accordance with the law at the time — instructed the jury in a perjury case that the element of materiality was a question of law for the court, and the element of materiality was therefore not submitted to the jury. Id. at 464, 117 S.Ct. 1544. Johnson was then found guilty and convicted of perjury. Id. at 464, 117 S.Ct. 1544. While Johnson’s direct appeal was pending, the Court held in United *450States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995), that the materiality of a false statement must be submitted to the jury rather than decided by the court. Johnson, 520 U.S. at 464, 117 S.Ct. 1544; Gaudin, 515 U.S. at 511, 115 S.Ct. 2310.
Although the rule in Gaudin had not yet been announced at the time of Johnson’s trial, the Supreme Court concluded that Johnson had nonetheless forfeited the right to raise on appeal the district court’s failure to submit the element of materiality to the jury. Johnson, 520 U.S. at 465, 117 S.Ct. 1544. On appeal, Johnson argued that the severity of the district court’s error made Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b), which allows discretionary appellate review of unobjected-to errors for plain error, inapplicable. Id. at 466, 117 S.Ct. 1544. The Court rejected Johnson’s argument, stating that “the seriousness of the error claimed does not remove consideration of it from the ambit of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.” Id. The Court went on to state that it would be inappropriate to create out of whole cloth an exception to Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b), and noted that such an exception “would skew [Rule 52(b)’s] careful balancing of our need to encourage all trial participants to seek a fair and accurate trial the first time around against our insistence that obvious injustice be promptly redressed.” Id. (quoting United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 15, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985)).
Five years later, the Supreme Court reached the same forfeiture conclusion with respect to an Apprendi error. United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 628, 631, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002). In Cotton, the defendant did not object at the district court regarding an alleged Ap-prendi error that occurred before Apprendi was decided. Id. at 628, 122 S.Ct. 1781. After sentencing, but while Cotton’s direct appeal was still pending, Apprendi was decided. Id. On appeal to the Supreme Court, that Court applied the plain error doctrine to “[Cotton’s] forfeited claim” of an Apprendi error and cited Johnson for the application of the plain error test. Id. at 631, 122 S.Ct. 1781.
Just last year in United States v. Booker, the Supreme Court noted in the context of Apprendi/Blakely errors that “[w]e expect reviewing courts to apply ordinary prudential doctrines, determining, for example, whether the issue was raised below and whether it fails the ‘plain-error’ test.” 543 U.S. 220, 268, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). I acknowledge that any guidance provided by Booker on the specific issue of forfeitability is limited due to Booker’s different legal context. In particular, one of the holdings in Booker was that the federal sentencing guidelines are advisory, while we held in State v. Shattuck that Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines are mandatory. Booker, 543 U.S. at 245, 125 S.Ct. 738; Shattuck, 704 N.W.2d at 141. Nonetheless, the Court’s language in Booker indicates that Appren-di/Blakely-type errors are subject to normal forfeiture rules. Accordingly, based on my analysis of the foregoing cases, I conclude that the majority has failed to provide sufficiently persuasive reasons in support of its conclusion that Minn. R.Crim. P. 26.01, subd. l(2)(a), somehow requires a result different than that reached by the federal courts.
Our willingness to look to the analytical framework provided by the federal courts is not without precedent. In applying the plain error doctrine, our court has relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States, which is discussed above. See, e.g., State v. MacLennan, 702 N.W.2d 219, 235 (Minn.2005); State v. Smith, 674 N.W.2d 398, 401 (Minn.2004); State v. Burg, 648 N.W.2d 673, 677 *451(Minn.2002); State v. Crowsbreast, 629 N.W.2d 433, 437 (Minn.2001); State v. Pilot, 595 N.W.2d 511, 518 (Minn.1999); Griller, 583 N.W.2d at 740-41. In Johnson, the Court applied Fed.R.Crim.P.52(b). 520 U.S. at 466-67, 117 S.Ct. 1544. Our reliance on the Court’s interpretation of Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b) in the application of Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02 has a sound and practical basis, because we have previously-recognized that Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b) is “substantially similar” to Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02.3 Hoagland v. State, 518 N.W.2d 531, 535 n. 3 (Minn.1994). Additionally, the comment to Rule 31 states “Rule 31.02 (Plain Error) is adapted from F.R.Crim. P. 52(b).”
Next, I address the majority’s view that we have already concluded that under Minnesota law, Apprendi/Blakely errors are not subject to forfeiture for appeal under Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02. The majority’s reliance on State v. Grossman, 636 N.W.2d 545 (Minn.2001), and O’Meara v. State, 679 N.W.2d 334 (Minn.2004), for the proposition that “the question whether a new rule of law should be applied on appeal turns not on forfeiture law but on retroactivity law” is misplaced. I conclude that the analysis of retroactivity is separate from the analysis of forfeitability. See Johnson, 520 U.S. at 467, 117 S.Ct. 1544. Neither Grossman nor O’Meara analyzes whether consideration of a sentencing error had been forfeited for appeal. See O’Meara, 679 N.W.2d at 337-38; Grossman, 636 N.W.2d at 547-48. The majority concludes that the absence of a forfeiture analysis dictates that Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02 does not apply to Appren-di/Blakely errors. I disagree. Rather, I conclude that the absence of a forfeiture analysis more likely indicates that the alleged errors were in fact preserved for appeal.
In conclusion, I recognize that the issue that Osborne brings to our court is complex and presents a close question. Indisputably, Blakely articulated a significant new rule of law, that it is still in its infancy, and ultimately, I believe that it is the United States Supreme Court that is best suited to guide the continued development of this new rule. To borrow a phrase from Chief Justice Warren Burger, our court is not “the forum in which this tangled web ought to be unsnarled” — at least not at this point in time. Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258, 286, 92 S.Ct. 2099, 32 L.Ed.2d 728 (1972) (Burger, C.J., concurring). Accordingly, until the Supreme Court provides some resolution or at least more guidance on this issue, I conclude that applying the rules articulated in Johnson, Cotton, and Booker represent the better course to follow.
For all the foregoing reasons, I conclude that a defendant forfeits appellate consideration of an alleged Blakely error by failing to object to the error at the district court. But our court has the discretion to address the alleged error under the plain error doctrine or, as we did in Henderson and Allen, in the interests of justice. Therefore, I conclude that Osborne forfeited appellate consideration of any alleged Blakely error by failing to object to the district court on Sixth Amendment jury trial grounds. I further conclude that the district court’s imposition of an upward sentencing departure based on its own *452findings was an error that was plain at the time of this appeal, that Osborne’s substantial rights were affected by this error, and that the error affected the fairness and integrity of the judicial proceedings. Accordingly, I concur with the outcome reached by the majority in affirming the court of appeals and remanding for resen-tencing consistent with State v. Shattuck.
One final note. Both the majority and concurrence have addressed the issue before us in the context of the Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure and the United States Constitution. Whether the Minnesota Constitution may provide certain additional protections has not been addressed and any discussion of this question will have to await another day.

. In two recent cases, we have addressed and corrected Blakely errors in the interests of justice. State v. Henderson, 706 N.W.2d 758, 760 (Minn.2005); State v. Allen, 706 N.W.2d 40, 44 (Minn.2005), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 126 S.Ct. 1884, — L.Ed.2d-(2006).

. I note that in addition to the examples identified by the majority, we have also held that a defendant forfeits consideration of a Fourth Amendment seizure issue by failing to preserve the error below. Sorenson, 441 N.W.2d at 458-59; see also State v. Blom, 682 N.W.2d 578, 614 (Minn.2004) (concluding that the defendant forfeited his claim that his statement should have been excluded because it was involuntary); State v. Quick, 659 N.W.2d 701, 717 (Minn.2003) (concluding that the defendant forfeited claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct); State v. Litzau, 650 N.W.2d 177, 182 (Minn.2002) (stating the general rule that when a defendant fails to object to a specific error at trial, the defendant forfeits his right to have the error reviewed on appeal).

. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b) Plain Error. A plain error that affects substantial rights may be considered even though it was not brought to the court’s attention.
Minn. R.Crim. P. 31.02. Plain Error. Plain errors or defects affecting substantial rights may be considered by the court upon motions for new trial, post-trial motions, and on appeal although they were not brought to the attention of the trial court.