Court Opinion

ID: 9641397
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:30:44.472043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:37.197174
License: Public Domain

GODFREY and NICHOLS, Justices,
dissenting.
We cannot join in the judgment of the Court.
We agree with the majority that the presiding justice did nor err in permitting the child prosecutrix to testify. We agree with them also that (a) the justice erred in failing to instruct the jury as to an element of the offense of which the defendant was accused, and (b) this error was duly saved when the defendant objected to the jury charge, clearly stating his ground for objection in time for the presiding justice to correct his error.
We cannot agree that this was harmless error.
The defendant was charged with unlawful sexual contact pursuant to the provisions of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 255(1)(C). The Maine Criminal Code defines “sexual contact” as requiring the purpose of “arousing or gratifying sexual desire.” 17-A M.R. S.A. § 251(1)(D). That definition thereby becomes an essential element of the offense with which the defendant was charged. That purpose was one of the facts the State had the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt.
The due process clause of the fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution protects a defendant against conviction “except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.” In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1073, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). The Declaration of Rights of the Maine Constitution, in protecting a defendant against deprivation of his liberty but by “the law of the land,” is of identical meaning and is of equivalent import. Me.Const. art. I, § 6; State v. Demerritt, 149 Me. 380, 386, 103 A.2d 106, 109 (1953).
The jury was instructed that a guilty verdict required a finding that the defendant’s touching of the child was “with an *264immoral or evil intent.” Even after objection, the jury was not instructed that a guilty verdict required a finding that this touching was for the purpose of “arousing or gratifying sexual, desire.” Thus the justice chose to omit from his charge one of the essential elements of the crime. The majority opinion does not rely on any argument that the instruction was close enough to what was necessary under the statute and the Constitution to make the variance harmless. The charge could not be saved on any such basis, of course. The difference between the instruction as given and the statutory definition was substantial.
This infraction was one of constitutional magnitude.
This refusal, after objection, to accord the defendant his right to an instruction on every fact which the Legislature had made an element of this crime cannot be disregarded as harmless error. Rather, substantial rights of the defendant were affected.
Notwithstanding the defendant’s plea of not guilty and his subsequent objection to the charge as given, the majority suggest that the purpose of the sexual contact “was never contested” at trial. They declare that the variance between the charge as given and the express requirement of our criminal code was a harmless one. Acting virtually as a fact finder, the Court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that a correct instruction could not possibly have produced a different verdict.
Our answer is two-fold. First, where a defendant has not admitted a single element of crime with which he is charged, the Winship doctrine entitles him to insist upon an accurate jury instruction on every element of that crime, whether or not he has adduced evidence thereon. Second, a disposition of his case, over his objection, in a manner which withdraws from jury determination an essential element, which he has not admitted, effectively denies the defendant the right to trial by jury guaranteed him by the federal and state constitutions. U.S.Const., amend. VI; Me.Const. art. I, § 6. See Casella v. United States, 449 F.2d 277, 283 (3d Cir. 1971).
Therefore, we respectfully dissent.
We submit that the judgment of the court below should be vacated and the case remanded for a new trial.