Court Opinion

ID: 9711884
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:41:06.96238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:08.106812
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion
DeBruler, J.
The procedure for establishing womanhood as a statutory element of the offense of which appellant stands convicted served to deny appellant the right to trial by jury guaranteed by Art. 1, § 19, of the Indiana Constitution and is invalid as compelling a defendant to incriminate himself in violation of the privilege against self-incrimination guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Art. 1, § 14, of the Indiana Constitution.
In this case, the judge, rather than the jury, determined that a statutory element of the offense was proved to have existed beyond a reasonable doubt. Why does this not deny the right to trial by jury? Appellant certainly had the right *127to trial by jury. That right is granted in Indiana by the Bill of Rights in Art. 1, § 19, which provides:
“In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts.”
In Dedrick v. State, (1936) 210 Ind. 259, 2 N.E.2d 409, this Court held that a trial court denies the right to trial by jury if it mandates the jury to make an affirmative factual inference. In Walter v. State, (1935) 208 Ind. 231, 195 N.E. 268, this Court stated:
“It has been repeatedly held, and is well settled, that it is error for the court in a criminal action to instruct the jury what evidence will be sufficient to establish any ultimate fact. Such an instruction is an invasion of the constitutional right of the jury to determine the facts for itself.” 208 Ind. at 239.
Here, the issue of whether appellant was a woman was taken entirely from the jury and decided by the court. If the case had been tried in a single proceeding before the jury, the jury would have been instructed that they were bound to consider that the womanhood of appellant had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In Indiana, under our Constitution, this procedure for determining sex by judicial notice is simply a denial of the right to trial by jury. The most that a trial court can do, consistent with the right to trial by jury, is to point out that a particular inference would be reasonable. Gann v. State, (1971) 256 Ind. 429, 269 N.E.2d 381; Miller v. State, (1944) 223 Ind. 50, 58 N.E.2d 114.
While appellant has not specifically made the claim that the procedure is violative of the privilege against self-incrimination, it is appropriate to consider this issue in light of the closely related constitutional challenges which call the issue out.
The procedure for establishing sex works in this way. The judge announces that he takes judicial notice that the accused is either a man or woman. At this point, the judicially-noticed *128fact, standing alone without more, cannot serve to satisfy the due process burden of the State to prove the statutory element of sex beyond a reasonable doubt. At this point, the fact does not have sufficient evidentiary force or weight to support a conviction. However, this judicially-noticed fact can gain additional and sufficient evidentiary force or weight if the accused remains silent or fails to produce evidence sufficient to indicate that he is not of the sex alleged in the charge. It therefore becomes clear that the silence or inability to negate has the force of evidence and is used against the accused as affirmative evidence of that which the State must prove. Silence elevates the quality of the judicially-noticed fact to certainty beyond a reasonable doubt and increases the probability of conviction.
Silence of the accused in a criminal case cannot be used as evidence of guilt. Griffin v. California, (1965) 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106; Rowley v. State, (1972) 259 Ind. 209, 285 N.E.2d 646; Keifer v. State, (1933) 204 Ind. 454, 184 N.E. 557. If the accused, under the procedure adopted here, does not attempt to produce evidence to rebut the judicially-noticed fact, this silence serves as proof of that which the State is required to prove to convict.
If an accused testifies in an attempt to produce sufficient evidence to rebut the judicially-noticed fact, that testimony is compelled and may be incriminating. Such testimony is compelled, because the accused knows that his silence will necessarily establish one of the elements of the offense against him beyond a reasonable doubt and also that, if he does not testify, the right to trial by jury on the issue will be lost. Such testimony may be incriminating, because, if it is insufficiently persuasive, it serves to raise the judicially-noticed fact to certainty beyond a reasonable doubt. Placing the burden of production upon the accused is in conflict with the privilege against self-incrimination, when the fact which the accused must produce some evidence about is a statutory *129element of the criminal charge and is therefore critical to the determination of guilt.
Note. — Reported at 340 N.E.2d 764.