Court Opinion

ID: 9744344
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:01:13.440781+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:48.503858
License: Public Domain

*296Quirico, J.
(dissenting). For the reasons stated below, I respectfully dissent from the decision of the court in this case.
The conclusion reached by the court seems to be the inevitable result of an apparent threshold assumption or implicit holding that, absent unusual circumstances not present in this case, a judge of a Municipal Court or District Court (both herein called District Court) is without power to bind a defendant over for trial in the Superior Court under G. L. c. 218, § 30, on a complaint charging a crime within the final jurisdiction of the District Court unless, before receiving any evidence on the complaint, the judge announces that the hearing is limited to the issue whether the defendant should be bound over. I base my reference to a threshold assumption or implicit holding on the following language in the court’s opinion: “This crime [unlawful possession of heroin], as defined in G .L. c. 94C, § 34, is a misdemeanor within the final jurisdiction of the Municipal Court. There is no indication, as required by Corey v. Commonwealth, 364 Mass. 137, 141 n.7 (1973), that the judge was considering declining jurisdiction as permitted under G. L. c. 218, § 30. Accordingly, we must infer that the judge intended to exercise jurisdiction and that a trial on the charge of possession of heroin was being held in the Municipal Court on January 30, 1974----Hay-ing concluded that a trial on the merits had begun, we further find that jeopardy had attached, for the judge had begun to hear evidence.”
Having thus concluded that “jeopardy had attached,” the court then considered whether there was any “manifest necessity” for terminating the trial without a decision on the merits and held that there was not. That was in turn followed by the holding that the attempt to try the defendant in the Superior Court for the same misdemeanor violated his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.
It is undisputed that by statute (now G. L. c. 218, § 30, as amended through St. 1970, c. 888, § 25) District Courts have long had, and now have, the power to “commit or bind *297over for trial in the superior court persons brought before them who appear to be guilty of crimes not within their final jurisdiction,” and that they are not limited to the making of a finding of guilt or innocence in such cases. Commonwealth v. Harris, 8 Gray 470, 476-478 (1857). Commonwealth v. Boyle, 14 Gray 3, 7 (1859). Commonwealth v. Hamilton, 129 Mass. 479, 480 (1880). Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 156 Mass. 487, 489 (1892). In Commonwealth v. Rice, 216 Mass. 480 (1914), involving a complaint charging a misdemeanor over which the District and Superior Courts had concurrent jurisdiction, we said (at 481) that the District Court “was not required to take full jurisdiction of the case. In any case within the jurisdiction of such courts, they may in their discretion commit or bind over the defendant for trial in the Superior Court, ‘if he appears to be guilty of the crime charged.’ R. L. c. 160, § 34 [predecessor to present G. L. c. 218, § 30]. In such cases those courts have... a discretionary power either to hear and determine the complaint brought before them, exercising in that event a final jurisdiction (except as a defendant, if convicted, may choose to appeal to a higher court), or to bind the defendant over for trial in the Superior Court. This power, like all powers of which the exercise is discretionary, is not to be used arbitrarily, but in view of the circumstances of each particular case, of the penalty which may be called for, and of the necessity which may seem to be shown of an examination by the grand jury of any apparent ramifications that may need to be searched into more thoroughly than conveniently can be done in the lower court.”
The sole question is whether, as a prerequisite to the exercise of its power to bind a defendant over to the Superior Court on a complaint charging a misdemeanor, a District Court judge must announce his intention to do so before receiving any evidence on the complaint. I am aware of no decision of this court holding that such an announcement is necessary. In Commonwealth v. Harris, 8 Gray 470 (1857), the court had before it the question whether the justice of the peace “did in fact exercise the power of an *298examining magistrate, hearing the evidence, and proceeding to hold the party to answer further before a higher court; or did he assume final jurisdiction to decide upon the guilt of the party, and proceed so far as to leave in him no other authority on the case than to pass sentence therein.” (Id. at 478.) The court answered that question in the following language (at 478-479): “The preliminary proceedings were certainly much the same as on a final trial. Perhaps they would ordinarily be so. It certainly might be important to the party on trial to ascertain, before the evidence was closed, whether it was merely a preliminary examination, or a trial for the offence, with reference to which he would carry the defence” (emphasis supplied).
In the Harris case (at 479), in Commonwealth v. Hamilton, 129 Mass. 479, 481 (1880), and in Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 156 Mass. 487, 489 (1892), there is language to the effect that where the record of the District Court or comparable predecessor lower court showed that the hearing in that court resulted in the entry of an order binding the defendant over to the Superior Court or comparable predecessor court of general jurisdiction, that order indicated that the lower court took jurisdiction of the case only for the purpose of making a prehminary examination to determine whether the defendant should be held for the higher court, but not for final determination of his guilt or innocence.
In Commonwealth v. Rice, 216 Mass. 480 (1914), after first holding, as indicated earlier in this opinion, that a District Court has discretion either to hear and finally determine a complaint charging a misdemeanor or to bind the defendant over to the Superior Court thereon, this court spoke as follows (at 481-482) on the question when the judge could or should decide and announce how he exercised that discretion: “Moreover the judge, as he cannot convict and sentence without sufficient proof of guilt, so too cannot bind over the defendant to the Superior Court unless guilt appears. In each case he must have heard all proper evidence and listened to the arguments of *299each party. Ordinarily the discretion cannot be exercised wisely until at least the incriminating evidence has been heard; sometimes its exercise may depend upon the character and credibility of the testimony put in by the defendant. We are of opinion that at least the judge is not required to make his election before he has heard all the evidence of the prosecution [emphasis supplied]. Whether the defendant is then entitled as of right, if he so desires, to know whether the judge has determined to decide the case, proceeding to sentence if there shall be a conviction, or to pass upon it merely as an examining magistrate, we need not consider, for here no such request was made. Under the circumstances here presented we are of opinion that all the proceedings before the judge were in fieri until he finally should have reached his determination and caused it to be entered of record. Until this has been done, whatever remarks the judge may have made are in legal effect merely statements of what his views then are, and may be recalled and not acted upon. At the close of the evidence he may feel convinced of either the guilt or the innocence of the defendant, and may even so announce; and yet the argument of counsel or the reminder of some piece of evidence which he had overlooked may lead him to the opposite conclusion, and that with a feeling of absolute certainty. So too he may feel that he ought to take full jurisdiction of the case, and convict and impose sentence, or acquit because he is not sure that guilt has been proved with the requisite certainty, and may announce this feeling; but so long at any rate as the case has not been absolutely ended, and his disposition thereof entered upon the record, his final determination remains in his own breast, and he may upon reflection reach the conclusion that justice requires a further investigation of the case, and bind over the defendant to the Superior Court. Or he may reconsider his determination thus to bind over the defendant, and proceed himself to dispose of the case. And so are our decisions [citing the Harris, Boyle and Hamilton cases cited above in this opinion, and other cases].”
The learning which a District Court judge would gain *300from a reading of the language quoted above from the decisions in the Harris and Rice cases is that as to a complaint charging a misdemeanor over which the District and the Superior Courts have concurrent final jurisdiction, (a) he has discretionary power either to exercise his full jurisdiction by making a finding of guilt or innocence and making a disposition in the event of a finding of guilt, or to bind the defendant over to the Superior Court on a finding that the defendant was probably guilty, (b) he is not required to decide or announce in advance of any trial or hearing that it will be limited to the question whether the defendant should be bound over to the Superior Court, and (c) he may conduct a hearing on the complaint as though it were a trial on the issue of innocence or guilt, and at the end of the hearing he may dispose of the matter by binding the defendant over to the Superior Court in lieu of a determination of innocence or guilt.
I am aware of no decision in which this court has ever overruled any part of the Rice case. The judges of the District Courts have for years generally followed the procedures approved in the Rice case, at least up to the date of the decision in Corey v. Commonwealth, 364 Mass. 137 (1973). The opinion in the Corey case included a footnote (at 141 n.7) which recognized the rule of the Rice case in the following language. “Earlier decisions by this court suggested that a District Court judge need not indicate to defence counsel prior to the hearing whether it is to be a trial on the merits or a probable cause hearing. See Commonwealth v. Goddard, 13 Mass. 455, 456 [1816]; Commonwealth v. Rice, 216 Mass. 480, 481 [1914]. In practice, many District Court judges do not decide whether to conduct a full trial on the merits until they have heard the prosecution’s evidence.” The footnote then suggests that the practice described “creates serious tactical problems for defence counsel who have no way of knowing until the end of the hearing whether the hearing is for probable cause or a full trial on the merits,” referring to K.B. Smith, Criminal Practice and Procedure § 686 (1970). The footnote then states: “To avoid these problems, a District *301Court judge should announce, before the hearing commences, whether he is conducting a probable cause hearing or a full trial on the merits. Before making this initial decision, the District Court judge may ask counsel for both the prosecution and defence for a discussion limited to the circumstances of the particular case necessary to aid him in his decision to exercise or decline final jurisdiction.”
It is my present opinion, as it was at the time of the Corey decision (see concurring opinion of Quirico, J., 364 Mass. at 144 [1973]), that fn.7 thereto was not relevant to the issues then before the court and that it was therefore dictum. I do not consider that dictum as having the effect of overruling the Rice case. I agree that it is desirable that a District Court judge state in advance, if reasonably possible, whether a hearing which he is about to hold on a complaint charging a crime within his final jurisdiction is to be a trial on the merits or simply a hearing on whether the defendant should be bound over to the Superior Court. However, I do not agree that anything in the Corey decision operates to impose on the District Court judge the obligation to make and announce such a decision in advance or be precluded from binding the defendant over. That the court thinks otherwise is apparent from the statement in its opinion in the present case to the effect that “[t]here is no indication, as required by Corey v. Commonwealth ... that the judge was considering declining jurisdiction as permitted under G. L. c. 218, § 30.” I cannot agree that language which I believe was dictum when used has, without more, become a rule of constitutional implications.
I do not believe that the conclusion reached by the court in this case is compelled by Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519 (1975), or by our decision in Stokes v. Commonwealth, 368 Mass. 754 (1975), which recognized and was in accord with the Breed decision on comparable facts. In the Stokes case the defendant was charged with juvenile delinquency by reason of having committed a crime which, if committed by an adult, would have been charged as murder in the first degree. The juvenile complaint was dismissed and he *302was thereafter indicted, tried and convicted as an adult for the crime of murder in the first degree with the resulting mandatory penalty of life imprisonment. The disposition would necessarily have been much more favorable to the defendant if his prosecution had continued on the juvenile delinquency complaint (G. L. c. 119, § 58), and it is even possible that it might not have involved any period of involuntary confinement or custody. Therefore, if the defendant in the Stokes case had been placed in jeopardy by the presentation of evidence on the juvenile complaint and he was thereafter prosecuted as an adult, the extent of the potential prejudice to him by the adult trial was imprisonment for life. By contrast the exposure of the defendant in the present case on the charge of illegal possession of heroin, a misdemeanor, was the same whether the conviction was on the original complaint against him or on the later indictment by the grand jury. In either case the maximum penalty was “imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than two years or by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars, or both.” G. L. c. 94C, § 34, as amended by St. 1972, c. 806, §§ 23, 24. We are not here dealing with any one of the felonies over which the District Courts have jurisdiction concurrent with the Superior Court under G. L. c. 218, § 26, as amended by St. 1973, c. 585, and which would permit a sentence to the State prison if disposed of on an indictment by the Superior Court, but would be limited to a house of correction penalty if disposed of on a complaint in the District Court.
The court’s opinion in this case will have the effect of adding yet another step in the already seemingly endless proceedings for the disposition of criminal cases. The interposition of a requirement that a District Court judge make and announce a decision in advance of a hearing on a complaint for a misdemeanor whether that hearing is to be on the merits or limited to the prehminary question whether to bind over the defendant to the Superior Court will itself be followed by a claim by defendants of a right to a hearing on what that preliminary decision should be. We can ill afford to add yet more steps which will further delay crim*303inal prosecutions at a time when our courts are already dangerously close to being unable to try cases in time to avoid having to dismiss them for violation of the defendant’s right to a speedy trial.
My position may be summarized as follows. A District Court judge may, for reasons which he deems sufficient, announce before holding any hearing on a complaint charging a misdemeanor within the court’s jurisdiction that the hearing is to be limited to the preliminary question whether the defendant should be bound over to the Superior Court. If the hearing is so limited, the judge may not, without the consent of the defendant, adjudicate his guilt or innocence of the crimes charged. If the judge announces no such limitation in advance of the hearing, the hearing will be conducted as though it were a full trial of the complaint on its merits and at the close of the hearing and arguments by or in behalf of the parties the judge may either (a) take jurisdiction of the case, make a finding of guilt or innocence and dispose of it accordingly, or (b) bind the defendant over to the Superior Court. In the latter event, the defendant shall not be entitled to termination of proceedings in the Superior Court on the claim of prior jeopardy because of the District Court proceedings. Burhoe v. Byrne, 289 F. Supp. 408, 411 (D. Mass. 1968).