Court Opinion

ID: 9549201
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:14:50.314597+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:59.812403
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
on petition for rehearing.
The fourteen months which have elapsed since a bare majority of the Court voted to deny Carter a new trial free of error, during which time the case was reargued, have served to fortify my views earlier expressed and to which I continue to adhere. When enough votes were cast to grant a rehearing I entertained some hope that the Court might at least be headed for some consistency in the area of fundamental error, an issue which was raised on appeal in the brief submitted by the office of the Attorney General in what I have previously described in the opening paragraphs of my earlier effort, supra, as a commendable performance of the duties of that office.
In a subsequent equally commendable performance on the rehearing, Mr. Lynn Thomas, Solicitor General for the office of the Attorney General,1 met the issue of fundamental error, discussed it, and urged upon the Court that we hold that beyond a reasonable doubt the error in placing upon the defendant the burden of establishing his innocence, per Mullaney v. Wilbur, supra, was harmless error. Going to the State’s brief:
“I.C. § 18-4006 provides:
‘Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice. It is of two kinds:
1. Voluntary — upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
2. Involuntary — ....’
“Idaho Code § 18-4009 provides that a homicide is ‘justifiable’ if it is committed under certain circumstances which constitute self-defense.
“Based on the above statutes, we find that in Idaho the crime of voluntary manslaughter consists of three elements which must be proved by the State: (1) the killing of a human being; (2) the killing was unlawful; and (3) the killing was the result of a sudden quarrel or heat of passion. Unless a justifiable homicide would be considered an unlawful homicide, the State must prove the absence of justification based on self-defense. Thus, placing the burden on the defendant to prove self-defense would be in violation of due process as established by the United States Supreme Court in In re Win-ship, supra.
“Jury instruction number 21 instructed the jury on self-defense as follows:
“ ‘You are instructed that to justify a killing on the ground of self defense or of defense of one’s wife or one’s family it is necessary to establish that the person doing the killing was without fault in bringing on the difficulty, that is, that he was not the aggressor and did not provoke the conflict.’ (R., p. 93).
“The State believes there are two potential problems with the giving of jury instruction number 21 which the Court may wish to consider on appeal. This instruction (1) confused the issue of who bears the burden of proving self-defense, and (2) incorrectly stated the law on the right of an aggressor or one who provoked the conflict to kill in self-defense.
“The Court is now faced with the question of whether the giving of this incorrect jury instruction so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violated Carter’s right to due process, or whether this instruction, viewed in the context of the entire jury instructions and the evidence presented at trial, did not violate Carter’s right to due process *933of law, and therefore any error was waived by failure to object at trial.
“Jury instruction number 21 instructed that ‘It is necessary to establish that the person doing the killing was without fault in bringing on the difficulty, that is, that he was not the aggressor and did not provoke the conflict.’ (R., p. 93). But, Idaho Code § 18-4009, relating to the right to kill in self-defense, provides:
“ ‘... but such person, ... if he [the person who committed the homicide] was the assailant or engaged in mortal combat, must really and in good faith have endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed.’
“It is thus clear that the person who kills in self-defense may have been at fault in bringing on the difficulty or in provoking the conflict, if he subsequently declined any further struggle before the homicide was committed. Therefore, instruction 21 incorrectly stated the law regarding an aggressor’s right to kill in self-defense.” State’s Brief on Rehearing.
Under Points and Authorities On Rehearing, the responsive brief of the State included:
“VIII.
“THE OBLIGATION OF THE STATE TO SEE THAT A DEFENDANT RECEIVES A FAIR TRIAL IS PRIMARY AND FUNDAMENTAL. IN THE CASE OF FUNDAMENTAL ERROR IN A CRIMINAL CASE, THE SUPREME COURT MAY CONSIDER AN ERROR EVEN THOUGH NO OBJECTION WAS MADE AT THE TIME OF TRIAL.
State v. White, 97 Idaho 708, 551 P.2d 1344 (1976)
State v. Haggard, 94 Idaho 249, 486 P.2d 260 (1971)
See: Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 55(b)
“IX.
“BEFORE A FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL ERROR CAN BE HELD HARMLESS, THE COURT MUST BE ABLE TO DECLARE A BELIEF THAT IT WAS HARMLESS BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.
Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, reh. den. 386 U.S. 987, 87 S.Ct. 824 [1283], 17 [18] L.Ed.2d 705 [241] (1967)
State v. LePage, 102 Idaho 674, 630 P.2d 674 (1981)”
Accordingly it cannot be denied, and I would be the first to concede, that the office of the Attorney General has been extremely fair in recognizing and addressing the issues, the proper determination of which in this Court should result in the defendant being awarded a new trial.
The State is entirely right in declaring that instruction No. 21 both incorrectly stated the law of self-defense and confused the placing of the burden of proof. The State goes on, following the portion of its brief first above quoted, to say that “it was clear that Tolley, the victim, initiated the conflict.” This, as the State sees it, rendered of no consequence the erroneous language of the instruction as to the law of self-defense. But here I am unable to agree. Everyone concedes that Carter acted in defense of himself, his wife, and his child, and that his family residence was invaded by an armed drunk, an obsessed Tolley who was intent on doing violence. The instruction, in all of its magnificent ambiguity, told the jury, at least as I read it, that Carter had to establish that he, the slayer, was without fault “in bringing on the difficulty." (Emphasis added.) Obviously, he was neither the immediate provoker nor the immediate aggressor. Not only is the instruction capable of being read as placing the burden of proving the defense of justifiable homicide upon the shoulders of the defendant, but he had to prove, if he could, that he was entirely without fault for the bad blood which culminated in the shooting affray. Moreover, it cannot be said, as the State urges, that other general instructions on burden of proof somehow cured the effect of this specific erroneous *934instruction.2 What this case was really all about was whether the defendant Carter acted unreasonably when his home was invaded by a violent-prone armed drunk bent on murder or mayhem. As fairly and squarely pointed out in the State’s brief:
“In an apparent discussion of instruction number 21, the trial judge stated: ‘That is the law. In other words, that is also what you have been trying to prove the last few days is that he wasn’t the one that started it. It was the other guy that started it.’ (Tr., p. 493, Ls. 16-19).”
Under that hypothesis, and the instruction which incorporated it, defendant had to exonerate himself from any responsibility for having started “the difficulty” in the first place. Proper inquiry would begin and end with the day Tolley appeared at the Carter home, armed, violent, and ready for combat. The law of Idaho declares that homicide is justifiable when (1) resisting an attempt to murder or do great bodily injury to any person, or, (2) when committed in defense of habitation, property or person against violence, or, (3) when committed in lawful defense of person, wife, or child, even when there is no show of violence — in which last instance only is there placed any obligation to in good faith endeavor to decline further conflict. I.C. § 18-1409.
The instruction was clearly wrong, prejudicial, and going to the very integrity of the jury’s fact-finding function, cannot be considered harmless as the State suggests. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). Moreover, the Chapman harmless error doctrine is also inapplicable unless an appellate court can declare, beyond a reasonable doubt, its conviction after a careful review of the entire record, that the evidence is overwhelmingly against the defendant that the error could not have contributed to the verdict. An examination of the evidence is in order..
The Court’s opinion tells only this much: “[Tjhere was evidence from which the jury could have found that Tolley dropped his gun before entering the truck.” Justice Shepard in his September 1981 opinion wrote that “the record is totally devoid of any indication of how or when the gun was dropped at the position it was later found,” and he points out that “the clear, unequivocal testimony of Carter is to the contrary, i.e., that while the deceased was in the pick-up he was pointing a weapon at Carter.” The prosecuting attorney in his opening address to the jury, after stating to them that Tolley did own and carry with him on that fateful day a .22 pistol, stated that when the police arrived there was that gun on the front lawn. He added his own surmise: “It may well be that Larry Tolley dropped that gun on the front lawn when he was hit by that first shotgun blast.”
What is the fact of the matter? Much of the answer is found in a proper resolution of the impeachment issue, where Susan Carter’s recollection of events was supposedly belittled by a Mr. Hanner with whom she had conversed immediately after the shoot-out.
Susan Carter, called to the stand as a witness for the State, testified to talking with Hanner immediately after the incident, first by telephone, and then at the Carter house. Her testimony, as State’s witness, was that “I told him [Hanner] what I told you here.” The supposed impeachment was a “no” answer to a double and perhaps quadruple question:
“Q. Mrs. Carter, on either the telephone call or the next day did you tell Mr. Hanner that you did not see a gun in Larry Tolley’s hand at any time and the first time you saw the gun was when Joe Carter took it from the pickup and threw it on the lawn?
“A. No, I did not tell him that.”
Hanner then testified, after admitting that he had heard her testimony concerning the incident:
“A. She said that she never seen a gun, that Larry hadn’t had a gun. I asked her if Larry was shooting back at him because anybody that has got a gun *935and getting shot with a shotgun, you have got to shoot back.
“Q. What did she say?
“A. She said that Joe did get a gun out of the car. She didn’t know whether he got it out of the glove box or under the seat.” (Emphasis added.)
Clearly there were then two State witnesses corroborating Carter’s version of the shooting when Tolley was in the pick-up— which was that Tolley still had his pistol— and explaining how it came to be found on the lawn when the police arrived. While Susan Carter did testify to her recollection that she saw Tolley with a gun when he first arrived, this was not an issue in the case. The State conceded Tolley owned and had with him the .22 pistol. A crucial issue was whether or not he had it in the pick-up when he received his final wounds from the antique shotgun. Her testimony on direct as Carter’s witness, which she re-endorsed when called as a State’s witness:
“Q. Did you then go in the house, Susan?
“A. Yes.
“Q. What occurred then?
“A. I looked out the window. There is a window right next to the door a foot and half or so and I looked out the window and I could see a trickle of blood on Larry’s arm. Larry hopped inside the pickup and he still had the door open and he was behind the door on the seat sitting up and I could see a trickle of blood on his arm. Joe was — also I saw Bobbie Tolley as I was going in the door. I saw Bobbie Tolley go by in the car. I thought to myself: of course, because she would come right after Larry on other occasions. Joe jumped down and he ran toward Bobbie’s car and he said, T just shot your husband, bitch.’ I ran out because I didn’t know what was going on and I put Jed down and ran out. Bobbie kind of stopped and then she took off. I ran back in the house and Joe came running in and there was a little ledge by the steps and he grabbed two more shells and I said, ‘Is he hurt or is he dead or what?’ I didn’t know how Larry was. I was concerned how Larry was and I didn’t want to see anybody get hurt and Joe just ran right on out and I kind of went running out behind him. Well, not directly behind him. He was down by the pickup by the time I got out. I put Jed down in his room and I was trying to stay calm and trying to act like nothing happened to Jed, you know. I was even saying Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill to Jed.
“So, Joe ran out and, so, Larry came up and Joe shot and jumped back and that was that.
“Q. What did Joe do after that?
“A. Joe came running into the yard and he laid his gun down on the lawn.
“Q. Did he open up the door at that time, the car door?
“A. Not then. He threw his gun down on the lawn and he went back to the pickup truck and said, ‘Larry, man, are you dead? I didn’t want to shoot you.’ He went into Larry’s car and came out with Larry’s gun in his hand. I said, ‘Joe, what are you doing? Don’t touch that, putting your fingerprints on that gun,’ and he just kind of looked at me starting to go like this, you know, to rub it on his shirt and I said, ‘Don’t do that. You are rubbing Larry’s prints off of that gun,’ and he just dropped it and he left it there and just then Mrs. Merrill came by and he said, ‘Call the police. There has been a man shot,’ and she went down the road and Joe went the other way to Killians’ house.” (Emphasis added.)
Such is positive testimony that the gun was with Tolley when Carter approached the Tolley pick-up and explains how the pistol came to be where it was when the police arrived. Even more important is the testimony of Hanner corroborating Susan Carter’s testimony, and hence the defendant’s as well, that “She said [to Hanner] that Joe did get a gun out of the car.” Tr., p. 469.
Surely a Court which can with equanimity write that “there was evidence from which the jury could have found that Tolley dropped his gun before entering the truck,” *936might spare a second of time to point to that evidence. It hasn’t; I will. Deputy Sheriff Johnson did testify that after he arrived on the scene the defendant Carter volunteered that Tolley dropped his gun when he was first wounded, and that the same statement was repeated on questioning the next day at headquarters. However, not to be ignored is that Johnson only gave this testimony responsive to a leading and suggestive question and some time after the pistol had been admitted into evidence as an exhibit.
“Q. Did he make any more comments to you, Mr. Johnson, about Larry Tolley’s pistol?
“A. At that time I don’t believe so.
“Q. What I am getting at was there any reference to Larry having dropped it?
“A. Yes.” (Emphasis added.)
Making a jury’s task even more difficult, Johnson, when recalled on State’s rebuttal, under cross-examination gave testimony which clearly was in corroboration of Carter’s testimony that he went to Tolley in the pick-up in order to both render first aid, and to relieve him of the gun.
“Q. Did you check the .22 out at Carter’s place to see whether or not it was loaded or unloaded?
“A. No, I didn’t.
“Q. You just picked up a gun that you didn’t know was loaded or unloaded and put it in a bag?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. Do you think that is a safe procedure?
“A. I was the only one going to have access to the gun. I knew it was not in a position where it could fire and I feel it was safe, yes.
“Q. Was there blood on the gun?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Do you know whose blood that was?
“A. I have no idea.
“Q. You don’t have any idea?
“A. I have an idea, yes.
“Q. Well, tell me whose idea.
“A. Larry Tolley’s blood.
“Q. It wasn’t Joe Carter’s, was it?
“A. I don’t believe so.
“Q. So, that would indicate to you that the gun was in the pickup in his hand?
“A. There was a question in my mind as to how the gun got there where there was blood on the gun. There was no blood on the sidewalk. The only place there was any blood was around the pickup.
“Q. Did you make any blood test on the gun?
“A. No, sir. I could see no reason for it.
“Q. Because your conclusion was that it was Larry Tolley’s?
“A. Right.” Tr. pp. 481-82. (Emphasis added.)
Nor can one ignore that the prosecutor in his opening statement had surmised, as above, with regard to the pistol, and in advising the jury as to what Deputy Johnson would testify, made no mention that Johnson would tell them of Carter’s volunteered statement.3 Concededly it may have been oversight, and for certain it is not meant to here intimate that Deputy Johnson’s testimony as to the volunteered statement was inaccurate. It is to suggest, however, that there was not overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt — so much so that Justice Shepard on the one hand sees the evidence as insufficient to sustain a conviction.
Justice Bakes, on the other hand, with two members of the Court joining his opinion, believes otherwise, but is perhaps not *937too conversant with the appeal record. Nothing therein sustains the Court in writing as it does that Tolley “retreated.” Such is pure and unadulterated judicial fact-finding which may make a doubtful appellate decision more palatable. Rather than a “retreat” to the pick-up, the evidence is more capable of being understood as showing that Tolley “took cover” in his pick-up, leaving open for argument whether he did or did not still have his .22 pistol, and leaving for argument whether Carter did or did not know that Tolley in the pick-up had his .22 pistol or some other weapon. Obviously, and as the record shows, Tolley “jumping” into his pick-up was not incapacitated to the point of total disability where he could not carry out his voiced threat to do harm to Carter’s wife or his one and a half year old son, or both. The prosecutor’s main theory in final summation was that, based on medical testimony, Tolley was originally only wounded by pellets, none of which reached into any vital organ or artery, and that death was solely attributable to the shotgun blast into his face at close range while in the pick-up. These are all matters properly for the concern of a jury which decides such close issues after a trial free from improper evidence and improper instructions.
It is difficult to comprehend how the Court can steadfastly refuse to consider the fundamental error of instruction No. 21, notwithstanding that the State itself has raised the issue and since addressed it while reminding the Court that “[t]he obligation of the State to see that a defendant receives a fair trial is primary and fundamental.”

. Mr. Michael Brassey, who appeared for the State at the first hearing, had left the office of the Attorney General before argument at rehearing.

. In opening his final summation, the prosecutor remarked disparagingly as to “the defendant’s claim that he acted in self-defense.” Tr., p. 504 (emphasis added).

. The prosecutor informed the jury only that: “Deputy Johnson, of course, took the shotgun. He looked around and he noticed the pistol laying on the front lawn. Naturally that was later secured and you will see that as well. He found three spent shotgun casings that evening.
“Joe Carter was brought into the police station where he informed Deputy Johnson that some threats had been made and as a result of those threats he had killed Larry Tolley.”