Court Opinion

ID: 9738142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:43:25.644005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:03.971648
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result of issue 1 and concur in issue 2 of the majority opinion.
Issue 1 centered around the failure of the trial court to include any reference to the term “official proceeding” in its jury instructions. In my opinion, the state’s attorney clearly erred in not pleading that the offense involved an official proceeding. It is settled law that the essential elements of a crime should be pleaded. State v. Swallow, 350 N.W.2d 606 (S.D.1984); State v. Williams, 297 N.W.2d 491 (S.D.1980); State v. Larson, 294 N.W.2d 801 (S.D.1980). Further, the trial court clearly erred in taking the position with counsel that the defect was something to be objected to later as a defective information, but not something which would properly be raised at the instruction settlement proceedings. Defense objections based on a defective indictment or information on the ground that it fails to charge an offense may be raised anytime during the pendency of the proceedings. SDCL 23A-8-3(3).
The fact that the Chasing Bear trial was an “official proceeding” is one which the trial court should have judicially noticed as an adjudicative fact under SDCL ch. 19-10. Pursuant to SDCL 19-10-2, the judicially noticed facts must be not subject to reasonable dispute in that they are generally known or capable of accurate and ready determination. The trial court should have instructed the jury (1) that one of the essential elements of the offense is that the witness must be one to an official proceeding, but (2) that as a matter of law a trial is an official proceeding. SDCL 19-10-7.
Even considering the foregoing, it is my opinion that the trial court’s errors were harmless. See SDCL 23A-44-14; State v. Muetze, 368 N.W.2d 575 (S.D.1985).