Court Opinion

ID: 9572975
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:46:23.794435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:52.984846
License: Public Domain

PAUL H. ANDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I do so because I do not agree with the majority on two key issues. First, the district court erred when it gave its jury instruction defining “past pattern of domestic abuse” because the instruction does not clearly state that more than one prior act of domestic abuse is required for there to be a past pattern. Second, the district court erred when it permitted the original error-ridden transcripts of Sanchez-Diaz’s interrogations to be submitted to the jury. Together, these errors denied Sanchez-Diaz a fair trial.
Sanchez-Diaz was convicted of first-degree domestic abuse murder under Minn. Stat. § 609.185(6) (2002). Section 609.185(6) reads as follows:
609.185 MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE.
(a) Whoever does any of the following is guilty of murder in the first degree and shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life:
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(6) causes the death of a human being while committing domestic abuse, when the perpetrator has engaged in a past pattern of domestic abuse upon the victim or upon another family or household member and the death occurs under eir-*838cumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life; * * *.
In State v. Grube, we considered the meaning of the phrase “past pattern of domestic abuse” and we stated that “[a] lone act, under any reasonable definition of the word ‘pattern,’ does not and cannot constitute a pattern.” 531 N.W.2d 484, 491 (Minn.1995). For Sanchez-Diaz to be convicted as charged, the jury needed to find that he committed two or more past acts of domestic abuse. Because of the jury instructions the court gave, we have no way of knowing whether the jury actually reached such a conclusion.
The court presented the jurors with the following definition of “past pattern of domestic abuse”:
prior acts of domestic abuse which form a reliable sample of observable traits or acts which characterize an individual’s behavior. No specific number of prior acts is required.
In this case, in deciding whether there has been a past pattern of domestic abuse, you must only consider acts of the defendant, if any, that occurred before December 29, 2001.
(Emphasis added.) This instruction is not found in the Minnesota CRIMJIG; however, the language in the first two sentences is identical to the language used by the district court in State v. Robinson, 539 N.W.2d 231, 236 (Minn.1995). In Robinson, we concluded that the absence of a precise statutory definition for “pattern” did not render section 609.185(6) unconstitutionally vague. Id. at 237. Unfortunately, we did not comment on the validity of the specific instruction.
The majority concludes that the instruction “was sufficient to convey the message to the jury that more than one act was required in order to find a past pattern of domestic abuse.” In support of this conclusion, the majority relies on the fact that the plural word “acts” appears in the instruction three times. But such an analysis ignores the impact of the following sentence: “NO specific number of prior acts is required.” The majority concedes that this sentence is “troubling.” Reduced to its most basic form, this sentence says, “No specific number is required.” The majority asserts that the instruction’s intended meaning is saved by the definition of pattern, the context surrounding this sentence, and the use of the word “acts.” I submit that this is not so and to illustrate my point, I urge consideration of the following sentences when read standing alone:
“No specific number of persons is required.”
“No specific number of widgets is required.”
“No specific number of [whatever] is required.”
As I read these illustrative sentences, it is clear to me that no specific number of persons, widgets, or whatever is required; thus, less than two will obviously satisfy the requirement. For this reason, the inclusion of the sentence, “No specific number of prior acts is required,” makes the instruction ambiguous at best.
Jury instructions must fairly and correctly state the applicable law. Hilligoss v. Cargill, Inc., 649 N.W.2d 142, 147 (Minn.2002). First-degree domestic abuse murder is a serious offense for which the penalty is life in prison. To give the jury an instruction that permits a conviction without a clear requirement that there must be at least two prior acts of domestic abuse is plain error.
The district court also erred when it permitted the original error-ridden transcripts of Sanehez-Diaz’s interrogations to be submitted to the jury when the jury listened to the audiotape of the interrogations. Sanchez-Diaz’s native language is Spanish. For this reason, it was necessary *839to utilize the services of a Spanish/English interpreter when the police interrogated him. The record indicates that the police did make a diligent effort to retain a qualified interpreter. Nevertheless, the interpreter used by the police made numerous significant errors when interpreting. Sanchez-Diaz points out that there were more than 40 such errors, some of which have been detailed by the majority, some of which I detail here:
Interpreter cut Correct stabbed
argument discussion
team of felonies crime scene team
palpable physical
shocked scared
two years two months
“six months” did not know how far along victim’s pregnancy was
“Where did you hit her?” ’’Where did you stab the victim?”
“And I took it away from her, because she got scared and pushed-pulled back.” ’’And I* * * removed [the knife] from myself. Because she got scared and jumped back.”
“When I pulled the knife out in the living room.” ’’When she — when I took the knife out of myself in the living room.”
“And I was putting a sweater on [the] baby.” ’’And when I was changing the baby, I was putting on his jacket so I could leave.”
“It was a fight that wasn’t very serious.” ’’But it was a very serious fight.”
Describing knife: “I think it’s too big.” ’’because it wasn’t very big, I think.”
“I was angry that she had stabbed me. From the moment I stabbed her, at first, I thought that she had just hit me with her hand.” ”1 was mad that she had cut me. At the time I felt the cut, I — I didn’t feel anything, I thought she’d hit me with her hand because I didn’t turn.”
Interpreter declined to interpret expletives. Numerous expletives.
Many of these errors qualify as textbook examples of how interpretation errors can compromise a defendant’s right to be understood. Moreover, these errors potentially had a substantive bearing on San-ehez-Diaz’s assertion at trial that Vazquez “verbally provoked” him and stabbed him in the chest as he was getting ready to leave the mobile home with the baby.
Accurate interpretation of a foreign language is as much an art as it is a science. Good interpreters are highly-skilled individuals. Unfortunately, such individuals are in short supply. This reality is juxtaposed against the reality of the need for an expeditious investigation of a crime, which need may require the police to proceed *840under less than ideal circumstances. I find no fault with how the police proceeded with the interrogation of Sanchez-Diaz. They acted in a diligent and conscientious manner to obtain a qualified interpreter. I find fault, however, with how the original error-ridden transcripts of the interrogations were dealt with at trial.
At the time of trial, the interpretation errors were well-known to all parties. When informed by the court-appointed interpreter that the interpreter was concerned about “significant” interpretation errors, the district court properly asked the interpreter to review the audiotapes and to produce a transcript. This review revealed that there were indeed numerous significant interpretation errors. Despite everyone’s knowledge of these “significant” errors and over the objections of defense counsel, the audiotapes of both the first and second interrogations were played for the jury while at the same time the jurors were provided with the original, error-ridden transcripts.
While I do not agree with the defense’s claim that Sanchez-Diaz’s interrogations should have been suppressed in their entirety, it was error to submit the original, error-ridden transcripts in their error-ridden form. See State v. Dominguez-Ramirez, 563 N.W.2d 245, 250 n. 2 (Minn.1997). The errors in the transcripts were not Sanchez-Diaz’s fault; rather, they were the result of the criminal justice system’s failure to accurately interpret how he responded to questions during his interrogations. At trial, Sanchez-Diaz invoked his constitutional right not to testify; therefore, the interrogation transcripts provided the jury with its only insight into his state of mind. The result was that the jurors heard the inaccurate interpretation on the audiotapes as they followed along on the error-ridden transcripts. Only at the time of the defense’s closing argument were the jurors given the corrected transcripts, after which they were sent off to deliberate with 227 pages to review and compare. Under such circumstances, it is highly likely that the jurors, after already having been distracted from the truth by the error-ridden transcripts, were overwhelmed, possibly confused, and may even have disregarded the correct transcripts and the substantive information they contained.
I do not find Dominguez-Ramirez to be persuasive authority for an affirmance. The key issue before us in Dominguez-Ramirez was whether the statement given by the defendant was involuntary because the interpreter’s incompetence caused the interrogation to be coercive. 563 N.W.2d at 254. We concluded that while the interrogation errors were unquestionably serious, they were “few in number,” did not make the “interrogation coercive,” and did not make the interrogation “deceptive or stress-inducing.” Id. at 255, 256. As a result, we held that the shortcomings of the interpreter did not make the interrogation coercive. Id. at 256. The issue here — the submission to the jury of error-ridden transcripts — is far different from the coerciveness of a defendant’s confession.
Moreover, in Dominguez-Ramirez, a qualified interpreter listened to a tape recording of the police interrogation, translated the Spanish into English, and then made corrections to the transcript provided by the police. Id. at 250. A copy of this corrected transcript was admitted into evidence and provided to each juror. Id. at 250 & n. 2. Importantly, we cautioned district courts about providing jurors with copies of transcripts that are inaccurate. We said:
A copy of the interrogation transcript, as corrected * * * was admitted at trial and a copy was given to each juror. While it may be appropriate for a dis*841trict court to furnish jurors with copies of a transcript to assist them when a tape recording is played, ordinarily a transcript should not be admitted in evidence unless both parties stipulate to its accuracy and admission. State v. Swanson, 498 N.W.2d 435, 439 (Minn.1993) (following State v. Olkon, 299 N.W.2d 89, 103 (Minn.1980)).
Dominguez-Ramirez, 563 N.W.2d at 250 n. 2.
The majority concedes the manner in which the court dealt with the interpretation errors was “somewhat flawed.” I would eliminate the qualifying adverb — it was flawed. The parties agreed that the transcripts were inaccurate, but did not agree on their admission. Yet, the court permitted the inaccurate transcripts to be submitted to the jury with the audiotape. Because the interrogation transcripts were ridden with numerous significant interpretation errors, their submission to the jury helped deny Sanchez-Diaz a fair trial.
For the foregoing reasons, I conclude that the district court made plain errors affecting Sanchez-Diaz’s substantial rights. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.