Court Opinion

ID: 9844682
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:06:42.671029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:39.982211
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Justice,
concurring and concurring in the result.
I concur in all of the Court’s opinion, except parts II, III, VI, and VTII(B).
II.
I concur in the result of part II (The Admission of Fields’ Statements to Inmate Witnesses Did Not Violate Fields’s Constitutional Rights). I agree with the Court’s con-*919elusion that Fields was not subjected to interrogation in violation of his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment. In holding that the interrogation did not violate the Idaho Constitution, I respectfully point out that the Court does not make the necessary analysis of the scope of protection provided by art. 1, § 13 of our state constitution.
As the Court has recently reaffirmed: “It is by now beyond dispute that this Court is free to interpret our state constitution as more protective of the rights of Idaho citizens than the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation of the federal constitution.” State v. Guzman, 122 Idaho 981, 987, 842 P.2d 660, 666 (1992).
In my view, the Idaho Constitution should be the primary source of constitutional protection in Idaho. We should consider whether the U.S. Constitution affords protection only when the Idaho Constitution does not provide the protection that is sought. In carrying out its role as the interpreter of the Idaho Constitution, this Court should consider first the Idaho Constitution, when its provisions are invoked, without looking to the interpretation given to comparable provisions of the U.S. Constitution by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court followed this principle in Coeur d’Alene Garbage v. Coeur d’Alene, 114 Idaho 588, 590, 759 P.2d 879, 881 (1988) in concluding that the protection of the just compensation clause of art. 1, § 14 of the Idaho Constitution was a sufficient basis for the decision, without addressing the just compensation clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Fields asserts that the admission of the inmate witnesses’ testimony violated his rights “to appear and defend in person and with counsel,” and not to be “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,” which is guaranteed by article 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution. I note first that in State v. Fain, 116 Idaho 82, 85, 774 P.2d 252, 255 (1989), cited in the Court’s opinion, the Court addressed only the protection afforded by the Sixth Amendment, and did not even mention art. 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution.
In a case with facts somewhat similar to those in the present case, this Court appeared to address the right to counsel protections of both the Sixth Amendment and art. 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution without differentiating the scope of the protection afforded by the two constitutions. State v. LePage, 102 Idaho 387, 392-93, 630 P.2d 674, 679-80 (1981). Although this would make it appear that the Court has adopted the scope of protection afforded by the right to counsel provision the Sixth Amendment as that afforded by the right to counsel provision of art. 1, § 13, the Court noted: “At oral argument, the state conceded that there had been a Massiah violation.” Id. at 392 n. 4, 630 P.2d at 679 n. 4. Therefore, there was no occasion for the Court to evaluate any different protection afforded by the state constitution.
In Mahler v. Birnbaum, 95 Idaho 14, 501 P.2d 282 (1972), however, the Court ruled on the protections afforded, by the right to counsel provisions of both art. 1, § 13, and the Sixth Amendment, without differentiating the scope of the state protection from that of the federal protection, based on a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. Id. at 15, 501 P.2d at 283.
In State v. Calkins, 63 Idaho 314, 318-20, 120 P.2d 253, 254-55 (1941), the Court considered the right to counsel protection afforded by art. 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution, without addressing the scope of protection afforded by the Sixth Amendment.
Neither the proceedings of our constitutional convention nor the prior decisions of this Court provide a basis for construing the right to counsel provision of art. 1, § 13 as affording more protection than the Sixth Amendment. In addition, a textual analysis does not lead to a different result.
Art. 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution does not use the same words to guarantee the right to counsel that the Sixth Amendment does. Art. 1, § 13 guarantees the right of the party accused “to appear and defend in person and with counsel.” The Sixth *920Amendment guarantees the accused the right “to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” The wording of art. 1 § 13, does not indicate to me that the drafters of our state constitution intended to provide a larger guarantee of the right to counsel than that contained in the Sixth Amendment. If anything, the words seem to indicate a smaller scope of protection. The right “to appear and defend” seems directed more toward courtroom proceedings than to activities that may occur outside the courtroom. Therefore, I conclude that art. 1, § 13 does not afford more right to counsel protection than the Sixth Amendment.
Fields also asserts that the admission of the inmate witnesses’ testimony violated his right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself protected by art. 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution. In State v. Bock, 80 Idaho 296, 328 P.2d 1065 (1958), the Court addressed this state constitutional protection:
This court has long held that the acts and conduct, declarations, statements, and admissions of the accused, before, at the time of, or subsequent to arrest, when not the result of unconstitutional coercion, are admissible in evidence against [the accused].
It has also long been the rule in this state that admissions of the accused whether made before or after arrest are admissible without a preliminary showing that they were voluntarily made.
Id. at 307, 328 P.2d at 1071-72 (citations omitted).
It is clear that the statements of Fields that were the subject of the inmate witnesses’ testimony did not violate these standards.
III.
I concur in the result of part III (The Eye-Witness Identifications of Fields Were Not Impermissibly Tainted by Media Publication of Fields’s Photograph). The Court’s analysis focusing on the merits of the issue is not the proper fundamental error analysis. The proper analysis is stated in State v. Kenner, 121 Idaho 594, 597, 826 P.2d 1306 (1992): “In order to determine whether we will consider an issue presented on appeal that was not presented to the trial court, we first must assess whether the error would be fundamental if there were error.” Employing this analysis, the Court should first assume that it was error for the trial court to have allowed the eye-witness identifications before assessing whether the error would be fundamental. Employing this analysis, I conclude that an error in the admission of the eye-witness identifications tainted by media publication of Fields’s photograph would be fundamental error.
This Court has recognized that there is a due process right not to have a tainted identification that would create a substantial likelihood of misidentification. State v. Hoisington, 104 Idaho 153, 161-62, 657 P.2d 17, 25-26 (1983). This type of error would take from Fields a right which was essential to his defense. Therefore, any error of this nature would be fundamental.
On the merits, however, I agree with the analysis of the Court that there is inadequate evidence to establish a tainting of the identifications.
VI.
I concur in the result of part VI (The District Court Did Not Err by Denying Fields’s Motion For a New Trial Based on Newly Discovered Evidence). In my view, the trial court should not have considered Martinez’s testimony presented in an unrelated proceeding as a basis for rejecting his testimony in support of the motion for new trial. Nevertheless, the trial court’s decision reveals that this was not the sole basis for the trial court’s conclusion that Martinez was not a credible witness. In fact, the trial court had already declared that Martinez’s testimony was “unbelievable to this Court or any reasonable jury” before mentioning Martinez’s testimony in the other proceeding.
VIII(B).
I concur in the result of part VIII(B) (The Evidence Supports the Finding of a Statute-*921ry Aggravating Circumstance). In my view, a review of evidence to support the trial court’s finding of the I.C. § 19-2515(g)(7) aggravating circumstance is unnecessary, because there is substantial evidence to support the finding of the I.C. § 19-2515(g)(8) aggravating circumstance. A finding of one aggravating circumstance is sufficient to lead to the weighing specified in I.C. § 19-2515(c), which is a prerequisite to the imposition of the death penalty.