Court Opinion

ID: 9607590
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:00:22.797979+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:39.412332
License: Public Domain

GOOLSBY, Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
I agree with the majority that the trial court committed no error in admitting into evidence tape recordings of telephone conversations between Andrews and Harold Johnson. I disagree, however, with the majority’s determination that the trial court’s charge on possession with intent to distribute marijuana constituted an impermissible burden-shifting instruction.
First, Andrews’s only distinct complaint to the trial court regarding the charge that it gave to the jurors on the legal effect of the possession of more than twenty-eight grams or more than one ounce of marijuana came after defense counsel inquired of the trial court whether it “also charge[d] them that they don’t have to consider it as an inference or that inference can be overcome by other evidence” and the trial court asked defense counsel for “a suggestion as to what charge you would have liked in place of that[.]” Cf. Rule 20(b), SCRCrimP (“Any objection shall state distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds for objection. Failure to object in accordance with this rule shall constitute a waiver of objection.”). Defense counsel responded,
“Well, ... I know inference replaces the old rebuttable presumption, you don’t have presumptions any more, my *529understanding in the criminal law; but it creates the inference that the jury doesn’t have to convict just simply on that inference alone. And there was usually a charge that was given to tell the jury that that is only an inference____”
Neither while discussing the charges nor while excepting to the charges did defense counsel object to the challenged charge on the ground that it impermissibly shifted the State’s burden of proof. Under these circumstances, I would hold the error argued on appeal was not preserved for our review. See State v. Hudgins, 319 S.C. 233, 460 S.E.2d 388 (1995) (an issue not raised to the trial court is procedurally barred on appeal), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 116 S.Ct. 821, 133 L.Ed.2d 764 (1996).1
Second, even if the error had been preserved as the majority holds, I would nevertheless hold the charge, when considered in its entirety, did not impermissibly shift the burden of proof from the State to Andrews. As noted by the United States Supreme Court:
If a specific portion of the jury charge, considered in isolation, could reasonably have been understood as creating a presumption that relieves the State of its burden of persuasion on an element of an offense, the potentially offending words must be considered in the context of the charge as a whole. Other instructions might explain the particular infirm language to the extent that a reasonable juror could not have considered the charge to have created an unconstitutional presumption.
Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 315, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 1971, 85 L.Ed.2d 344, 354 (1985).
In contrast to the charge in Taylor v. State, 312 S.C. 179, 439 S.E.2d 820 (1993), one of the cases on which the majority *530relies, the charge in question here neither referred to the inference of guilt as a rebuttable presumption nor suggested Andrews was required to overcome certain inferences established by the State. Furthermore, the trial court expressly included an instruction that the jury was not bound by the statutory inference of S.C.Code Ann. § 44-53-370(d)(3) (Supp. 1995), an instruction lacking in the charge in Taylor. The charge attacked here, then, when considered as a whole, could not reasonably have been understood by the jury to have shifted the burden of proof to Andrews to disprove the elements of the offense with which he was charged. Cf. State v. Norris, 285 S.C. 86, 328 S.E.2d 339 (1985) (a charge that the jury could, but did not have to, infer malice could not reasonably have been understood by the jury as an instruction that the burden of proof would be shifted to the defendant), overruled on other grounds by State v. Torrence, 305 S.C. 45, 406 S.E.2d 315 (1991).
One final note. I question the majority’s interpretation of State v. Burriss, 281 S.C. 47, 314 S.E.2d 316 (1984). In attempting to distinguish Burriss from the present case, the majority states “[t]he Court noted, however, that the trial judge in [the] Burriss [ ] case did not actually charge the jury on that particular statute, and concluded that the judge’s instruction constituted harmless error when the charge was reviewed in its entirety.” Although the trial court in Burriss did not read the statute in question to the jury, it did charge the jury that wilful concealment of unpurchased goods on or outside a merchant’s premises “would give rise to what we call a prima facie presumption that that person was concealing the article -with the intention of converting it to his own use without paying the purchase price.” Id. at 50, 314 S.E.2d at 318 (emphasis added). Despite the use of the phrase “prima facie,” which the majority characterizes as an “anathema in a jury charge,” the supreme court in Burriss was “of the opinion that the charge when considered as a whole did not deprive the accused of any constitutional right.” Id. at 51, 314 S.E.2d at 318.
I would affirm.

. Indeed, the trial court had already instructed the jury that possession of more than twenty-eight grams or more than an ounce of marijuana created “only an inference.” The trial court told the jurors,
This inference which I have just read to you is an inference only. It does not relieve the State from actually proving beyond a reasonable doubt the element of intent to distribute, so it is not binding on you. This inference is simply an evidentiary fact to be taken in consideration by you, the jury, along with the other evidence in the case and to be given such weight as you the jury determine it should receive. (Emphasis added.)