Court Opinion

ID: 9851089
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:07:19.27538+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:48.472313
License: Public Domain

ZASTROW, Justice
(concurring specialty)-
I concur in the opinion of Justice Morgan. The South Dakota statutes preceding SDCL 19-2-1 have been interpreted as making a spouse incompetent as a witness unless the other spouse consents to such testimony. State v. Burt, 1903, 17 S.D. 7, 94 N.W. 409; State v. Damm, 1933, 62 S.D. 123, 252 N.W. 7; State v. Goff, 1936, 64 S.D. 80, 264 N.W. 665. See also, United States v. Crow Dog, 1882, 3 Dak. 106, 14 N.W. 437.
It is surprising that in spite of the criticism of spousal incompetency by Wigmore & McCormick (and Bentham long before them) that it survives and was reaffirmed in Hawkins v. United States, 1958, 358 U.S. 74, 79 S.Ct. 136, 3 L.Ed.2d 125. Even with the many decisions which have allowed criminal defendants to effectively prevent prosecution by marrying a complaining witness, our legislature has not seen fit to make any significant amendments to SDCL 19-2-1, and it remains basically unchanged from § 5260(1) of the 1887 Territory of Dakota Compiled Laws.*
Since the legislature has made no change in the statute and the “preservation of the marital' relationship” apparently continues to “outweigh the disadvantages to the administration of justice which the privilege entails” (see Wolfle v. United States, 1934, 291 U.S. 7, 54 S.Ct. 279, 280, 78 L.Ed. 617), there seems to be no reason to circumvent the spirit of the statute by a procedural rule simply because we find the rationale behind it questionable.
Although the result here may be offensive to some, there have been results just as offensive in the past, and yet the statutory privilege has been unchanged. Because it is in statutory form, it is up to the legislature to decide whether the privilege should be modified. However, the legislature in the recent past seems intent on creating more privileges rather than restricting them. Every privilege, be it marital, doctor-patient, psychologist, psychotherapist, social worker, school counselor, etc., has the effect of making testimony unavailable in the judicial fact-finding process. That is a question of public policy to be decided by the legislature.

 “1. A husband cannot be examined for or against his wife without her consent; nor a wife for or against her husband without his consent; nor can either, during the marriage, or afterward, be, without the consent of the other, examined as to any communication made by one to the other during the marriage; but this subdivision does not apply to a civil action or proceeding by one against the other, nor to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other.”