Court Opinion

ID: 9593258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:21:06.574606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:19.418256
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J.,
concurring.
I agree with the result reached by the majority only because the requests that the findings of fact and conclusions of law be articulated were not made until after the defendant-appellant, Kevin G. Franklin, had been pronounced guilty. If, however, the majority opinion means that even in the face of a timely request, a trial judge acting as the fact finder need not reveal the factual and legal bases upon which a criminal judgment rests, then the opinion goes too far.
The statement in State v. Cowan, 204 Neb. 708, 711, 285 N.W.2d 113, 115 (1979), that “[t]here is no rule of law which requires the trial judge, acting as the trier of fact in a criminal case, to make any special findings of fact” is dictum because no request for such appears to have been made. Admittedly, however, the declaration in State v. Lozano, 209 Neb. 772, 311 N.W.2d 529 (1981), that Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1127 (Reissue 1979) (requiring that, upon request, a judge sitting as a trier of fact state in writing the conclusions of fact separately from the conclusions of law) does not apply to criminal cases implies that a timely request had been made.
But even if the separation of powers doctrine does not render a statute in this area irrelevant, a matter with which I do not now concern myself, the fact that no statute may require an articulation of the factual and legal bases upon which a criminal *588judgment rests does not mean that other considerations do not demand that such be done. As noted in People v Jackson, 390 Mich. 621, 212 N.W.2d 918 (1973), findings of fact in a nonjury case serve a function paralleling the judge’s charge in a jury case, that of revealing the law applied by the fact finder. Moreover, such findings of fact may be indispensable to a proper appellate review. United States v. Brown, 716 F.2d 457 (7th Cir. 1983).
If the rule indeed is that a trial judge acting as a fact finder in a criminal case need never reveal the facts and laws upon which the judgment is founded, a criminal defendant may be well advised not to waive a jury, especially in view of the reality that a circumspect judge cannot be held accountable for the evidential rulings made in such a trial. See, e.g., State v. Garza ante p. 256, 487 N.W.2d 551 (1992); State v. Chambers, ante p. 66, 486 N.W.2d 481 (1992).