Court Opinion

ID: 9543501
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:45:59.512031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:26.300379
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). I write separately to express my growing concern about the difficulty of applying the teaching of United States v. Gipson, 553 F.2d 453 (5th Cir. 1977), on the issue of jury unanimity. Other jurisdictions are also having difficulty in explaining the application of Gipson to the *433particular case. All agree that jury unanimity is required, but substantial doubt exists as to what the jury has to be unanimous about.1
I start by setting forth the rationale of Gipson as I understand it.
*434Gipson was charged with one count of selling or receiving a stolen vehicle moving in interstate commerce in violation of 18 USC sec. 2313. The statute provides that whoever receives, conceals, stores, barters, sells or disposes of a motor vehicle knowing the same to be stolen shall be fined or imprisoned or both. On appeal Gipson’s argument of violation of his right to a unanimous verdict was based on a jury instruction specifically sanctioning the return of a verdict of guilty based on the jury’s agreement that the defendant did one of the prohibited acts without requiring that all members of the jury agree as to which of the prohibited acts was committed.2 The Gipson court phrased the issue raised in the case as follows:
*435“. . . Where a single criminal statute prohibits a number of acts, and a finding by the jury that the defendant did any one of the prohibited acts is sufficient to convict him (provided, of course, that all other elements of the offense are found), is the defendant’s right to a unanimous verdict infringed if a guilty verdict is returned when all members of the jury agree that the defendant performed one of the prohibited acts, but disagree as to which of the acts he performed? In other words, where a criminal statute provides a number of ways of satisfying the actus reus element of an offense, does a defendant’s right to a unanimous jury verdict require all jurors to find that element present by reaching substantial agreement as to the facts that satisfy the element before they can return a verdict of guilty?” Gipson, supra, 553 F.2d at 456-457.
The court of appeals overturned the conviction, holding that Gipson’s right to a unanimous jury verdict was infringed. The court of appeals said that
"A superficial analysis of the problem might yield the conclusion that since every juror was still required to find all elements of the charged offense present in order *436to convict the defendant, there was necessarily unanimous jury agreement as to his guilt. This reasoning loses its cogency, however, when the policy underlying the unanimous jury right is taken into account.” Gipson, supra, 553 F.2d at 457.
The court of appeals reasoned that the unanimity right, like the reasonable doubt standard, “ ‘impress [ed] on the trier of fact the necessity of reaching a subjective state of certitude on the facts in issue.’ ” The court of appeals interpreted the unanimity rule as requiring “jurors to be in substantial agreement as to just what a defendant did as a step preliminary, to determining whether the defendant is guilty of the crime charged.” The court of appeals, relying on In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970), concluded that “jury consensus as to the defendant’s course of action” is necessary to ensure the defendant’s right to a unanimous verdict. Gipson, supra, 553 F.2d at 457, 458.3
Proceeding from this foundation the court of appeals considered the statute under which Gipson was convicted. The court began by noting that although a statute prohibits several acts, each act is not necessarily distinct and different from the others. Apparently interpreting the statutorily prohibited acts as they are commonly understood, or as they are defined by case law or statute, the court concluded that some of the statutorily prohibited acts were synonymous and others were not. The court determined that the statutorily prohib*437ited acts fell into two distinct conceptual groupings: one, relating to housing of stolen vehicles, consisted of receiving, concealing and storing; the other relating to marketing of stolen vehicles consisted of bartering, selling and disposing.
As to the three statutorily prohibited acts within each conceptual grouping, the Gipson court decided that the jury might disagree which statutorily prohibited act within the conceptual grouping best describes Gipson’s conduct without violating the unanimous verdict requirement. The basis for this conclusion appears to rest on the following reasoning: The statutorily prohibited acts within each grouping are substantially similar; Gipson’s conduct might constitute more than one of the similar statutorily prohibited acts within a single conceptual grouping; requiring the jury to agree as to which statutorily prohibited act within one conceptual grouping best describes Gipson’s conduct presents, what the court termed, a characterization problem; a disagreement among jurors as to which act Gipson committed will not hinder a unanimous jury finding of the actus reus element of the offense.
As to the two statutory groupings, the Gipson court decided the jurors must be told they must agree on which of the statutorily prohibited groupings Gipson’s conduct violates, because only if the jurors agree on the statutorily prohibited grouping will they have reached substantial agreement on what Gipson did. The court said the two conceptual groupings in Gipson, each consisting of three statutorily prohibited acts, were sufficiently different so that a verdict would not be unanimous if some jurors thought Gipson committed a statutorily prohibited act in the first conceptual grouping while other jurors thought he committed a statutorily prohibited act in the second conceptual grouping. The court stated:
“On the other hand, the two conceptual groupings are sufficiently different so that a jury finding of the *438actus reus element of the offense would not be ‘unanimous’ if some of the jurors thought the defendant committed only an act in the first conceptual grouping while others believed he committed an act only in the second. Differentiating the course of conduct prohibited by the first grouping from that proscribed by the second presents neither the conceptualization nor the characterization problems posed by distinguishing the acts within each grouping. The individual jurors and the collective jury could be expected to perceive and understand that the conduct prohibited by the first grouping, that relating to the housing of stolen vehicles, is distinct and different from the conduct forbidden by the second grouping, that dealing with the marketing of stolen vehicles.” Gipson, supra, 553 F.2d at 458.
This analysis makes evident that Gipson does not offer a firm, fixed rule for use in determining which statutorily prohibited acts or which statutorily prohibited ways of committing a single offense are sufficiently synonymous or analogous not to require a unanimity instruction and which statutorily prohibited acts or ways of committing a single offense are sufficiently conceptually distinct and different to require a unanimity instruction. Other conceptual groupings of the six acts are possible. Another conceptual grouping might be to put all six acts into one conceptual group, namely trafficking in stolen vehicles. Alternatively, on facts other than those before the court the Gipson court itself might have announced different conceptual groupings. It is easy to conceive of facts in which asking a jury to distinguish between concealing and disposing of a stolen vehicle would be a characterization problem not requiring a unanimous jury finding,. Conceptual groupings, while dependent to an extent on the statutory language, are also dependent upon the facts in evidence. This makes the Gipson analysis difficult to apply.
Because Gipson appears to be predicated on the concept that the unanimous jury verdict requires the jurors *439to be in substantial agreement as to what the defendant did (that is, as to what conduct the defendant engaged in), as well as to whether that conduct fulfills the legal elements of the crime,4 I fear that a court might not be able to determine, without reference to the evidence in a particular case, whether the possible conceptual differences between use of force and the threat of imminent use of force require that the jury determine unanimously which of the two statutory alternatives defines the defendant’s conduct.
In the instant case an instruction requiring unanimity on the mode of committing the single crime of robbery is not needed. The modes charged are, on the facts of *440the case, analogous and overlapping; adequate evidence concerning each mode was submitted to the jury; and unanimity was not necessary to ensure jury unanimity on what the defendant did. I am concerned that a case might arise where, in order to ensure jury unanimity on what the defendant did, the trial court may have to give an instruction requiring unanimity on the mode of committing the single crime of robbery.
Although I conclude that it was not necessary for the trial court in this case to elect between “use of force” and “threat of imminent use of force” in instructing the jury, I endorse the Comment of the Jury Instruction Committee that “in the usual case election would clarify the issue and should be done where possible.” Wis. J I — Criminal Part II, No. 1480, Note 2 (Rel. No.. 2 12/80). Cf. People v. Embree, 70 Mich. App. 382, 246 N.W.2d 6, 8 (1976). And when the evidence is insufficient to warrant an instruction on one of the alternative ways of committing a crime, the instruction should not refer to that alternative.5
It would be easier if I thought, without qualification or hesitation, that in every robbery case the trial court could automatically instruct on both alternatives. I do not think Gipson’s teachings can be so easily applied.

 In Boldt v. State, 72 Wis. 7, 14-17, 38 N.W. 177 (1888), multiple offenses were involved rather than a single offense which may be committed in several ways. The offense charged sale of liquor. The complaint charged only a single violation of the statute, that is, sale on a particular date. Proof was admitted on several distinct sales and the jury was instructed as to the several violations. This court discussed jury unanimity as follows:
“We have stated that the defendant was charged with a single violation of the statute in the complaint. Now, if evidence is admitted to prove several distinct offenses, it is apparent it would often work hardship and injustice to the defendant; for, while charged with the commission of hut one offense, he might be tried, under such a rule, for a great number of distinct and independent offenses of which he had no notice in the complaint, and had made no preparation to meet. But the still more serious objection is that the jury might find him guilty under proof of several distinct offenses, when they would not agree that the evidence was sufficient to find him guilty of any one particular sale. Or, as it is well put by the court in State v. Crimmins, 31 Kan. 376-380, ‘If evidence was introduced tending to prove twelve or more different offenses, the jury might find him guilty without any two of the jurors agreeing that he was guilty of any particular one of such offenses. One juror might believe that he was guilty of one offense, another juror of another, and so on with respect to all the jurors and all the offenses; each juror believing that the defendant was guilty of some one of the offenses which the evidence possibly tended to prove, but no two jurors agreeing that he was guilty of the same identical offense.’ This, it seems to us, is a most weighty and insuperable objection to allowing evidence tending to prove several separate and distinct offenses under a complaint or information which charges the defendant with the commission of but a single one.
“. . . But in the case at bar the prosecution was allowed to prove any number of sales of liquor to different persons, within the period named, under a complaint which charged but a single sale. The court refused to compel the prosecution to elect on what sale *434it would ask for a conviction or to confine its evidence to the sales made on or about June 10th. Under the circumstances it would seem but right and fair to have required the state to make an election; certainly before the defendant was called upon to make his defense. But without deciding the point it may perhaps be held that this was a matter resting in the discretion of the court. But we are clearly of the opinion that the court should have directed the jury that they must find the defendant guilty of making some one specific sale in order to convict. But the court charged in effect that if the jury was satisfied that the defendant made any sale to any one between the 10th day of May and the 11th day of June, they were authorized to convict him. For the reasons given, we think this was error, which must work a reversal of the judgment. The jury were not instructed, as they should have been, that they must be satisfied from the proof that the defendant made a sale upon some day prior to the day specified, and that they must all agree that he was guilty of the same identical offense. We think the court was bound to give such an instruction, in view of the evidence admitted and of the third instruction asked on the part of the defendant, which was refused.”

 “. . • About an hour after the jury retired to deliberate, the jurors returned to the courtroom to request additional instructions from the court, handing the judge a note that read, ‘In Count Two, will he be guilty of all counts or will it be broken down?’ The judge accurately perceived that this question could be interpreted in several different ways. He identified three distinct glosses *435that could be placed on the question and gave the jury instructions responsive to each of these interpretations. In response to his third interpretation of the jury’s question, the judge charged the jury as follows:
“ ‘A third question that may be the one that the jury is really asking is, must there be an agreement by all twelve jurors as to which act of those several charged in Count Two, that the defendant did. For example, would it be possible for one juror to believe that the Defendant had stored property, and another juror to believe that he had received property, and so on. If all twelve agreed that he had done some one of those acts, but there was not agreement that he had done the same act, would that support a conviction? The answer is yes. If each of you is satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt that he did any one of those acts charged, and did it with the requisite state of mind, then there would be a unanimous verdict, and there could be a return of guilty under Count Two of the indictment, even though there may have been disagreement within the jury as to whether it was receiving or storing or what.’ ” Gipson, supra, 553 F.2d at 455, 456.

 The court said the challenged instruction authorized the jury to return a guilty verdict “despite the fact that some jurors may have believed that Gipson engaged in conduct only characterizable as receiving, concealing, or storing while other jurors were convinced that he committed acts only constituting bartering, selling, or disposing. Thus, under the instruction, the jury was permitted to convict Gipson even though there may have been significant disagreement as to what he did. The instruction was therefore violative of Gipson’s right to a unanimous jury verdict.” Gipson, supra, 553 F2d at 458, 459.

 The value of the unanimous jury verdict has been discussed as follows:
“. . . Unlike the ‘historical accident’ of jury size, unanimity relates directly to the deliberative function of the jury. Unanimity serves to effectuate the purpose of the jury system by promoting the full expression of the views of all members of the jury and by insuring that those views are taken into account as fully and fairly as possible in reaching a verdict. See, e.g., Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404, 397-99, 92 S. Ct. 1628 (1972) (Stewart, J., dissenting); id. at 399-403, 92 S. Ct. 1628 (Marshall, J., dissenting) . Unanimity is an indispensable element of a federal jury trial because it serves the purpose of insuring that the views of a cross-section of the community are brought to bear fully on the issues to be decided at trial.” United States v. Scalzitti, 578 F.2d 507, 512 (3d Cir. 1978).
“. . . The dynamics of the jury process are such that often only one or two members express doubt as to view held by a majority at the outset of deliberations. A rule which insists on unanimity furthers the deliberative process by requiring the minority view to be examined and, if possible, accepted or rejected by the entire jury. The requirement of jury unanimity thus has a precise effect on the fact-finding process, one which gives particular significance and conclusiveness to the jury’s verdict. Both the defendant and society can place special confidence in a unanimous verdict, and we are unwilling to surrender the values of that mode of fact-finding . . . .” United States v. Lopez, 581 F.2d 1338, 1341 (9th Cir. 1978).

 It appears that the goal of fitting the instruction to the evidence has been recommended by the Wisconsin Criminal Jury Instructions Committee since 1966. Wis. J I — .Criminal, Part II No. 1476 (1966) is entitled “Bobbery by the Use of Force” and instructs that the jury be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant used force; Wis. J I — Criminal, Part II No. 1477 (1966) is entitled “Bobbery by Threat of Force” and instructs that the jury be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant threatened the imminent use of force; Wis. J I — Criminal, Part II No. 1479 (1966) is entitled “Bobbery (Where Facts Warrant Instruction on Both Use of Force and Threat Thereof)” and instructs that the jury be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant used force or threatened the use of imminent force.