Court Opinion

ID: 9797388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:19:27.615481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:54:51.751370
License: Public Domain

MINZNER, Justice (specially concurring). {25} I concur in the result of the majority opinion. I believe, however, that the issue is “not whether the requirement of the defendant’s initial presence ought to be subject to waiver like many other trial rights; but rather, whether, given the language of Rule 5-612 and our common-law heritage of treating the defendant’s presence as non-waivable, [we have] in fact authorized such waivers.” State v. Padilla, 2000-NMCA-090, ¶ 18 n. 1, 129 N.M. 625, 11 P.3d 589. The Court of Appeals majority opinion seems to me to construe Rule 5-612 NMRA 2002 persuasively and, based on that construction, to reach the result the rule should produce on the facts of this case. {26} Section (A) of Rule 5-612 states that the defendant “shall be present ... except as otherwise provided by this rule.” Given that “shall” generally is read to denote something mandatory, I would conclude from Section (A) that a defendant’s presence is mandatory unless an exception can be found in the remainder of Rule 5-612. I do not read the remaining sections of the rule to provide an exception that would allow for waiver of a defendant’s initial presence. Section (C) lists exceptions not relevant to this appeal. Sections (B)(1) and (B)(2) provide for exceptions that could be read to apply to Defendant, except that both are expressly limited to those defendants who are “initially present.” I would therefore conclude, as did a majority of the Court of Appeals, that Rule 5-612 does not authorize the waiver attempted by Defendant. {27} I understand that defendants also have a constitutional right to be present at trial and that, as a general matter, constitutional rights can be waived. I do not think the question of whether, and in what circumstances, constitutional rights can be waived is relevant to this appeal. We are called upon to decide whether Rule 5-612 allows defendants to avoid being present at the beginning of their trial. I conclude that it does not, and that the failure of the trial court to insure Defendant’s initial presence requires a new trial. {28} I accept that Rule 5-612, Rule 43 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the cases from which the federal rule evolved were intended to apply to implied waivers, rather than express waivers. I recognize that the majority opinion distinguishes the federal cases and the federal rule on that basis. While I think that is a sensible distinction, I am not persuaded that it is grounded in the text of the rule. As the rule is written, I think the Court of Appeals majority correctly construed it to apply to both express and implied waivers and correctly determined that neither type of waiver will excuse Defendant’s initial absence. {29} I agree with the majority of the Court of Appeals when they wrote, In our view, the requirement of the defendant’s initial presence at trial is largely symbolic, reflecting our society’s traditional distrust of in absentia proceedings. Justice Stevens has suggested that harmless-error is inappropriate where the procedural right determined to have been violated serves “an independent value besides reliability of the outcome.” United States v. Lane, 474 U.S. 438, 474, 106 S.Ct. 725, 88 L.Ed.2d 814 (1986) (Stevens, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part). The requirement of the defendant’s initial presence at trial serves ‘an independent value besides reliability of the outcome’ and is akin to a structural defect. Padilla, 2000-NMCA-090, ¶20, 129 N.M. 625, 11 P.3d 589. {30} As Rule 5-612 is written, it seems to me to describe the fundamental nature of a trial in our system of justice, at which the accused faces his or her accusers and participates in a process that is public, not only to protect his or her rights, but also to promote public trust and confidence. At some point, by letting counsel for either party modify that process for individual ends, we have changed its fundamental nature. Rule 5-612 seems to me to protect that process except in certain specific, limited situations. I respectfully disagree with the majority when it suggests, as it does in paragraph 14, above, that any other result ignores practical realities and disrupts decisions that are more properly for a defendant and his counsel. The procedures that ought to govern a trial are for the trial court judge and for this Court in its rules of criminal procedure to control; some of those procedures can be waived, others ought not be waivable. The determination of which are waivable and which are not ought to be relatively clear in the rules this Court issues. {31} I respectfully conclude that Rule 5-612 does not authorize the waiver Defendant attempted. For the reasons stated by the Court of Appeals in the majority opinion, I also would reverse Defendant’s convictions and remand for a new trial.