Court Opinion

ID: 9733896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:19:57.736806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:44.331916
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The jury’s verdict was not presented to nor received by the trial court. Thus, the entire proceedings were coram non judice and the judgment of conviction is null and void.
South Dakota Constitution Article VI, § 6, and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranties to the criminally accused, the right of trial by jury. A jury trial is a trial of an issue of fact by a duly impaneled jury, under the direction and superintendence of the court. This direction and superintendence of the court is an essential part of the trial and a trial by jury in the courts of this nation is a trial presided over by a judge. Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 13-18, 19 S.Ct. 580, 586, 43 L.Ed.2d 873, 877-79 (1899). See also, 3 L. Orfield, Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules, § 23:22 (1966). A court is defined as “an incorporeal political being, which requires for its existence the presence of its judges, or a competent number of them ... and the performance of some public act indicative of the design to perform the functions of a court.” In re Terrill, 52 Kan. 29, 31, 34 P. 457, 458 (1893) (emphasis supplied; citation omitted). There can be no court without a judge, see Stokes v. State, 71 Ark. 112, 114, 71 S.W. 248, 249 (1902); People v. Blackman, 127 Cal. 248, 249, 59 P. 573, 573 (1899); State v. Sullivan, 95 Fla. 191, 208, 116 So. 255, 262 (1928); State v. Carnagy, 106 Iowa 483, 487, 76 N.W. 805, 806 (1898); Slaughter v. United States, 5 Ind.T. 234, 237, 82 S.W. 732, 733 (1904); State v. Darrow, 56 N.D. 334, 340, 217 N.W. 519, 522 (1928); In re Patzwald, 5 Okl. 789, 799, 50 P. 139, 143 (1897); State v. Olberman, 33 Or. 556, 557, 55 P. 866, 866 (1899); and if the presiding judge abandons the trial or relinquishes control of the proceedings, the criminally accused, who is entitled to be tried in a court duly constituted, has good cause to complain. State v. Beuerman, 59 Kan. 586, 591, 53 P. 874, 875 (1898). Thus, “the judge is an essential constituent of a court, and ... there can be no court in the absence of the judge or judges.” State v. Jackson, 21 S.D. 494, 497, 113 N.W. 880, 881 (1907).
In the present case, the jury returned a verdict on March 8, 1983. Judge Heege, however, the presiding judge, was out of town and R.D. Hurd, a State’s witness during the trial, received the jury’s verdict. It is axiomatic that a witness in a trial cannot be the judge in the trial. SDCL 19-14-5 provides: “The judge presiding at the trial may not testify in that trial as a witness. No objection need be made in order to preserve the point.” Thus, R.D. Hurd, a witness, who is a circuit judge of the same circuit this case was tried in, could not become the judge in the case and accept the jury’s verdict because he was disqualified in all respects from so doing. In State v. Finder, 12 S.D. 423, 81 N.W. 959 (1900), this Court reversed a judgment of conviction because a judge previously disqualified by an affidavit of prejudice, received the jury’s verdict. In so reversing, this Court held that the disqualified judge was entirely without jurisdiction to receive the verdict. In State v. Jackson, 113 N.W. 880, this Court reversed a judgment of conviction declaring it null and void because the clerk of the court accepted the jury’s verdict in place of the trial judge. In so reversing, this Court noted that judicial powers and duties are strictly personal in nature, to be performed by the judge alone, and that the “reception of a verdict is clearly a judicial act, and authority to receive it cannot be delegated.” 21 S.D. at 498, 113 N.W. at 881. See also, McClure v. State, 77 Ind. 287, 289 (1881); Britton v. Fox, 39 Ind. 369, 371 (1872); People v. Little, 305 Mich. 482, 483, 9 N.W.2d 683, 684 (1943); State v. Bazemore, 193 N.C. 336, 337, 137 S.E. 172, 173 (1927); and Allen v. State, 13 Okl.Crim. 533, 535, 165 P. 745, 746 (1917). In the case at bar, R.D. Hurd, being unable to sit as the judge of the case, was in no better position than the disqualified judge in Finder or the layman *259in Jackson, and thus he could not receive the jury’s verdict nor be delegated the authority to do the same. So far as this case is concerned, R.D. Hurd was a witness and a witness only. He was not the judge in the case and could not be the judge in the case.
Although SDCL 23A-25-12 permits a court to adjourn during jury deliberations and nevertheless be deemed opened for every purpose connected with the case submitted to the jury, this statute does not authorize the acceptance of jury verdicts by laymen or disqualified judges. Under SDCL 23A-26-1, the verdict must “be returned by the jury to the judge or magistrate in open court.” (Emphasis supplied.) A disqualified judge is not the judge of the case and cannot accept the jury’s verdict nor be delegated the authority to do the same.
Because the occurrences herein transgress the constitutional right to be tried in a court duly constituted, transgress SDCL 23A-26-1 and transgress our long-standing rulings in Finder and Jackson, I would reverse the judgment of conviction as null and void and remand for a retrial. The receipt and acceptance of a jury verdict by a trial judge is not a mere ministerial matter, for at this point in a properly constituted trial, numerous judicial decisions and considerations are made. This is especially true in criminal proceedings when the accused’s life, liberty and property are at stake. Our courts are instituted for the protection of the people’s rights and for the redress of their wrongs. Litigants are entitled to have their actions heard by a properly constituted court in the manner prescribed by law. With the trial judge absent during a vital portion of the proceeding, this is not possible. The trial judge’s absence at the rendition of a jury verdict is not a properly constituted trial and it fails to protect personal rights, and the public’s interests. This single issue is dispositive of this case and no other contention need be considered. I therefore would reverse.