Court Opinion

ID: 9611078
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:51:49.054805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:09.958151
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
specially concurring.
I agree with the majority of the court that Marshall’s conviction must be affirmed. I am in complete accord that there *800has been no repeal by implication of the criminal statute under which he was charged. I agree that the trial court properly denied the motion for judgment of acquittal because in my view the evidence was sufficient under the prior decisions of this court to make a prima facie case. Rinehart v. State, Wyo., 641 P.2d 192 (1982) (Thomas, J., specially concurring, and cases cited in the concurring opinion).
I do have some concern about the rule that the motion for judgment of acquittal is to be viewed as waived if the defendant proceeds to introduce evidence in his own behalf. Upon reflection, this rule strikes me as an anomaly in our criminal jurisprudence. No one in our society has any serious quarrel with the requirement that in a criminal case the accused must be proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We support with unanimity our constitutional requirements that one cannot be forced to be a witness against himself. The application of the rule, however, does interfere with an unfettered opportunity by the defendant to test whether the State has met its burden at the close of the State’s case. See Jacobs v. State, Wyo., 641 P.2d 197 (1982). The thrust of the rule with respect to waiver of a motion for judgment of acquittal if the defendant introduces evidence well may be that a defendant is legally coerced into presenting evidence because of uncertainty about the validity of his motion position; such evidence well could be his own testimony; and that evidence can be relied upon to establish his guilt. If he chooses to rely upon his motion, the presentation of a viable defense could be chilled by the application of this rule.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has summarized the problem in this manner:
“The waiver rule thus places defendant on the horns of a dilemma if he believes his motion for acquittal made at the close of the government’s case was erroneously denied. He can rest his case, thereby preserving his appeal, and face the risk of a conviction which may not be reversed, or he can present evidence of his innocence, thereby waiving his appeal from the original ruling, and assume the risk that this evidence may provide the missing elements in the prosecution’s case.” * * United States v. Lopez, 576 F.2d 840, 842 (10th Cir. 1978).
I recognize that the rule set forth in the majority opinion is by far the majority rule in this country. I would agree that the application of the rule probably does result in some convictions being attained which otherwise might not have been, and those convictions being sustained upon appeal where otherwise they might not have been. I am not sure that the number of those eases ever would be very large. It does seem to me, however, that a better solution to that problem would be to assure that we had more able prosecutors who would have the assistance of sufficiently adequate investigative resources that the prosecution could present a prima facie case and achieve a conviction without the necessity of relying upon the defendant’s evidence filling the holes in the prosecution’s case. I note that other courts and judges have wondered about the fairness and desirability of this rule. United States v. Burton, 472 F.2d 757 (8th Cir. 1973); United States v. Rizzo, 416 F.2d 734 (7th Cir. 1969); Cephus v. United States, 117 U.S.App.D.C. 15, 324 F.2d 893 (1963). State v. Bacheller, 89 N.J.L. 433, 98 A. 829 (1916). See also State v. Rocker, 52 Haw. 336, 352, 475 P.2d 684 (1970) (Levinson, J., dissenting); State v. Smith, La., 332 So.2d 773 (1976) (Calogero, J., dissenting); and Newell v. State, Wyo., 548 P.2d 8 (1976) (McClintock, J., dissenting).