Court Opinion

ID: 9884681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:08:25.65571+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:40.142880
License: Public Domain

GILDEA, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I agree with the majority on the eviden-tiary, misconduct, and lesser-included-offense issues, but I write separately to address two issues on which I part company from the majority’s analysis. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the district court abused its discretion in denying Prtine’s challenge for cause of prospective juror J.B. I also disagree with the majority’s conclusion that we need to remand the *319question of whether Prtine consented to his attorney’s concession on intent.
A.
With respect to the challenge for cause, we have recognized that the district court is “in the best position to observe and judge the demeanor of the prospective juror” and as a result, we defer to the court’s credibility determinations that support its decision to deny a challenge for cause. State v. Graham, 371 N.W.2d 204, 206 (Minn.1985). In the case the majority relies on, State v. Logan, we said that the district court’s “resolution of the question whether the prospective juror’s protestation of impartiality is believable is entitled to special deference.” 535 N.W.2d 320, 323 (Minn.1995) (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). Notwithstanding our deferential standard of review, the majority concludes that the district court erred in determining that J.B. was credible in swearing that she could be a fair and impartial juror. I disagree.
The majority relies on Logan in setting aside the district court’s credibility determination, but Logan was a much different case. In Logan, the prospective juror agreed that it would be “virtually impossible” for him to “conclude as a juror that a police officer had testified falsely.” Id. at 322. In the face of this assertion of near certainty, we concluded that the district court’s conclusion that the juror had been rehabilitated was erroneous. Specifically, we said “that the trial court erred in rejecting defense counsel’s challenge in this case because the juror did not swear that he could set aside any opinion he might hold and decide the case on the evidence, but only that he would try.” Id. at 324 (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). The majority concludes that J.B. similarly failed to swear that she “could set aside any opinion [she] might hold and decide the case on the evidence,” and that therefore the district court erred. In my view, the majority misreads the record.
Unlike the juror in Logan, J.B. specifically said, in response to the court’s questions, that she “could” be “a fair and impartial juror.” The court asked: “what we really want to know is whether you believe you could be a fair and impartial juror and participate in a trial of this nature.” In response, J.B. said, “I think I could, yes.”
The court later asked: “[A] [jjuror’s function would be to be unbiased, not have any pre-judgments, to listen to the evidence during the trial. Set aside anything that you may have heard or seen elsewhere, not let that influence you, so you can be a fair and impartial juror. Can you do that?” In response, J.B. said, “I think I can, yes.”
Finally, the court asked J.B.: “So as you sit here right now, do you think you could be a fair and unbiased juror?” J.B. answered, “Yes, although a nervous, anxious” juror. In my view, the majority’s conclusion that “J.B. never swore that she ‘could set aside any opinion [she] might hold and decide the case on the evidence’ ” cannot be squared with J.B.’s answers to these questions.
I acknowledge that during the questioning, J.B. said that she “would be more inclined to believe” police officers. The court then asked:
But do you think that you can have an .unbiased view and not prejudge anybody’s testimony until you have heard it, and give it just such open mind and fair consideration as you believe it deserves in the light of all the other evidence, in the light of your own experience and common sense, and after discussing it *320with your fellow jurors, that would really be the question?
In response, J.B. said “yes.”
Based on J.B.’s testimony as a whole, and giving due deference to the district court’s ability to observe her demeanor during her answers to all of the questions posed during voir dire, I would defer to the court’s credibility determination that J.B. was truthful when she said she “could” be a fair and impartial juror. I therefore would hold that the court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Prtine’s motion to strike J.B. for cause.
B.
I also disagree with the majority’s conclusion that we need to remand this matter for a determination of whether Prtine consented to his counsel’s concession on the question of intent. Prtine alleges that he received ineffective assistance of counsel because, in closing argument, his lawyer admitted “that you intentionally caused the death of someone [has] never been missing” from the case. The majority concludes that this admission was one of guilt and that unless Prtine consented to this admission, his counsel was ineffective. I disagree.
I would hold that counsel did not concede Prtine’s guilt. As the majority notes, Prtine’s defense at trial was not that he did not kill Ward. Rather, Prtine’s contention was that he killed Ward in self-defense. As the majority also notes, “[wjhether one is justified in using deadly force is an objective inquiry ... not an evaluation of the defendant’s subjective state of mind.” Moreover, as the majority also correctly concludes, “a criminal defendant’s subjective intent to kill does not negate a self-defense claim.” Because counsel’s statement conceded at most a subjective intent to kill and Prtine’s self-defense claim was not negated thereby, I would hold that counsel did not admit Prtine’s guilt. A remand to determine whether Prtine consented therefore is not necessary.