Court Opinion

ID: 9627530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:47:11.127619+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:33:39.530711
License: Public Domain

Webster, J. —
I dissent. In the absence of prejudice, there is no rational reason to reverse Hopper's conviction based on a technically defective information, even when that defect is constitutional in character. In its most recent decision addressing a technically defective information, the Washington Supreme Court refused to reverse a conviction when the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. *214State v. Bailey, 114 Wn.2d 340, 348, 787 P.2d 1378 (1990) (conviction of indecent liberties affirmed, despite omission of essential, nonmarriage element of crime from information charging statutory rape). The Bailey decision indicates that the harmless error rule applies here.
The rationale for this approach is sound. The majority permits a defendant aware of a defective information to gamble on an acquittal and obtain a reversal if convicted. The State, ignorant of the error, is forced to retry the defendant. The result is an unjustified waste of public funds and judicial time and resources.
A defendant in a criminal case should not be permitted to put a county and the state to the expense of preparing for a trial and then spring an objection that might and should have been interposed prior to the incurring of such expense.
State v. Strange, 50 Wash. 321, 322, 97 P. 233 (1908).
[I]t is but just to the state that it have notice of the particular objections which may be interposed to the accusation set forth in the information, and an opportunity to meet them in an orderly manner.
State v. Bodeckar, 11 Wash. 417, 421, 39 P. 645 (1895).
A defendant has a constitutional right to know the "nature and cause of the accusation against him". Const, art. 1, § 22 (amend. 10); U.S. Const, amend. 6. But even constitutional error does not justify retrial if the error is "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 17 L. Ed. 2d 705, 87 S. Ct. 824 (1867). The harmless error rule "allows the appellate court to avoid reversal on merely technical or academic grounds while insuring that a conviction will be reversed where there is any reasonable possibility that" the error prejudiced the defendant. State v. Guloy, 104 Wn.2d 412, 426, 705 P.2d 1182 (1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1020 (1986).
Hopper has neither alleged nor shown prejudice. Hopper knew the State had to prove that he knowingly assaulted a police officer with an instrument or thing likely to produce bodily harm. Moreover, the facts do not suggest that Hopper would have presented a different defense had the information alleged that he knowingly assaulted the officer. The *215only issue was whether an assault occurred, not whether Hopper committed it knowingly (as opposed to accidentally) or whether he knew the flashlight was an instrument or thing likely to produce bodily harm (as opposed to a harmless device). Any error in the charging document was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
I would affirm.
Reconsideration denied August 6, 1990.
Review granted at 115 Wn.2d 1027 (1990).