Court Opinion

ID: 9647012
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:20:49.023822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:44.757708
License: Public Domain

NUGENT, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur with Judge Gaitan’s opinion in all but one respect: I would affirm as to the second part of Point I for a different reason.
Defendant Green complains in his brief’s Point II that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutor to amend the information long after the defendant’s time for applying for a peremptory change of judge *790under Rule 32.07 had passed. The defendant claims that the late filing of the amended information left him no opportunity to file a peremptory challenge to the judge who would sentence him if the jury found him guilty. Had he been tried under the original information, the jury would have determined the maximum sentence, not the judge. That, says the defendant, “is prejudicial and unfair.”
Rule 32.07(a) gives a defendant a right to a peremptory change of judge. The defendant “need not allege or prove any reason for such change.” But for this rule, an occasional defendant might have no way to avoid a trial before a judge the defendant justifiably regards as prejudiced or unfair. Thus, unquestionably, Rule 32.07(a) grants a defendant a “substantial right” within the meaning of Rule 23.08.
The defendant’s right to a peremptory change of judge constitutes a substantial right, although not an absolute right: the defendant must assert this right within specific time limits or waive it. In felony cases, Rule 32.07(c) limits the right to its exercise, with some exceptions, within thirty days. More importantly to some defendants, Rule 32.07(c) thus burdens the defendant with making his choice to apply for a change of judge even though the defendant would willingly submit to a jury trial before the designated judge in a case in which the defendant anticipates that the jury will assess the punishment. If the defendant has a concern about the designated trial judge, whether contingent or not, he must apply for the change within the time the rule allows. If he does not, he waives the right to a peremptory change even if he later learns that the designated trial judge will assess the punishment.
When a defendant waives his right to a peremptory change of judge, he does so at the risk of suffering some disadvantage, real or perceived. In this case, the defendant waived his limited right at the risk that the prosecutor would amend the information in such a way that the responsibility for imposing sentence would shift from the jury to the designated judge. Although the defendant lost an advantage that Rule 32.07 granted him, he lost it as a consequence of his own waiver, not as the result of unfairness.
Accordingly, I would deny defendants Point II.
SHANGLER, J. concurs.