Court Opinion

ID: 9704277
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:29:24.209838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:59.563546
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring).
In agreeing with this opinion in its substantive content, I feel compelled to assert some historical background and facts to illuminate the proceedings preceding this appeal.
This appeal was prompted by a jury verdict returned on July 26, 1975. Prior to sentencing, appellant became a fugitive of justice and obtained asylum for many years in the State of California. Later, he fled from the State of California and took up sanctuary on an Indian Reservation in the State of New York. To his credit, he sought a conciliation with the law and surrendered himself to authorities in the State of South Dakota, whereupon a judgment of conviction was entered on October 8, 1984, sentencing him to two concurrent three-year terms of imprisonment.
It should be noted that during his jury trial, which lasted from July 10 to July 26, 1975, the circuit judge who sentenced appellant directed a verdict of not guilty of arson to the Chamber of Commerce building in Custer, South Dakota, which was burned to the ground. It should be further noted that the jury, selected to hear this case, acquitted appellant of arson with regard to the Custer County Courthouse, Custer, South Dakota, which was also set ablaze on February 6, 1973. This same jury acquitted appellant of the burglary of two law enforcement vehicles. Thus, it would appear that the jurors exhibited an ability and willingness to ignore pretrial publicity and decided the guilt or innocence of appellant under the facts presented during the trial. It appears that this Custer County jury did have a state of mind which accorded a presumption of innocence unto appellant and judged him under the evidence received according to the court’s instruction. Notwithstanding appellant’s protestations of an unfair trial, the conclusion leaps out that appellant was accorded his constitutional right in that respect.
On his two concurrent three-year terms of imprisonment, appellant began his confinement in the State Penitentiary on October 8,1984, and was released on supervised parole on December 9, 1985. Therefore, his incarceration totaled one year and two months.
In his brief, submitted by famous counsel of New York and well-known, able defense counsel of South Dakota, appellant reminds us of his remarks to the trial court that he had returned to face his sentence because he wanted “to help build South Dakota ... because progress is too slow— progress of trying to bring together Indian people and white people is too slow.” This, *28appellant expressed in a spirit of reconciliation when he was sentenced. Now, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has granted him an opportunity to make his words good. Let us hope that appellant lives up to his words.