Harkins v. State

735 So. 2d 317, 1999 WL 174235
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1999
Docket97-KA-01138-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 735 So. 2d 317 (Harkins v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harkins v. State, 735 So. 2d 317, 1999 WL 174235 (Mich. 1999).

Opinion

735 So.2d 317 (1999)

Henry HARKINS a/k/a Henry L. Harkins
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 97-KA-01138-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 31, 1999.

*318 Thomas L. Kesler, Columbus, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Roderick Dixie Walker and Jolene M. Lowry, Attorneys for Appellee.

BEFORE PRATHER, C.J., SMITH AND WALLER, JJ.

PRATHER, Chief Justice, for the Court:

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

¶ 1. On November 1, 1995, Appellant Henry Harkins was tried and convicted of driving under the influence (D.U.I.), second offense, in the Justice Court of Noxubee County. Harkins appealed to the Circuit Court of Noxubee County, where he requested, but was denied, a jury trial. Following a bench trial, Circuit Judge Lee Howard found Harkins guilty and sentenced him to five (5) days imprisonment in the county jail, suspended, and ordered him to pay a fine of $750 plus court costs. Harkins timely appealed to this Court.

ISSUES

I. Whether the trial court erred in refusing the appellant a trial by jury.

¶ 2. The State confesses reversible error in the present case, acknowledging that the trial court erred in refusing Harkins' request for a jury trial.[1] Uniform Rules of Circuit and County Court Practice 12.02(c) provides in part that "[i]n appeals from justice or municipal court when the maximum possible sentence is six months or less, the case may be tried without a jury at the court's discretion..." Rule 12.02(c) thus only grants the trial court discretion to deny a defendant's request for a jury trial in cases in which the maximum possible sentence is six months or less. This provision is based upon United States Supreme Court decisions presumption that offenses carrying maximum sentences of six months or less are "petty offenses" to which the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury does not apply. See e.g., Lewis v. United States, 518 U.S. 322, 116 S.Ct. 2163, 135 L.Ed.2d 590 (1996); Blanton v. City of North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538, 109 S.Ct. 1289, 103 L.Ed.2d 550 (1989); Baldwin v. New York, 399 U.S. 66, 90 S.Ct. 1886, 26 L.Ed.2d 437 (1970)(plurality).

¶ 3. Harkins was tried pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 63-11-30(2)(b)(1996 & Supp. 1998), which provided (in its version effective July 1, 1995) for a statutory maximum sentence of one year for second offense D.U.I.:

(b) Upon any second conviction of any person violating subsection (1) of this section, the offenses being committed *319 within a period of ten (10) years, such person shall be fined not less than Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) nor more than One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00) and shall be imprisoned not less than ten (10) days nor more than one (1) year.

It is thus apparent that the trial court committed reversible error in denying Harkins' request for a jury trial.[2] The judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the case is remanded for a trial before a jury.

II. Whether the trial court erred in admitting a Certificate of Calibration of the intoxilyzer.
III. Whether the trial court erred in admitting the results of the intoxilyzer test.
III. Whether the trial court erred in allowing evidence of the horizontal gaze test.
IV. Whether the verdict of guilty of DUI is supported by sufficient evidence.

¶ 4. Although the State acknowledges reversible error on the jury trial issue, both parties have requested that this Court address the trial court's decision to admit into evidence two certificates of calibration for the intoxilyzer used in the present case. Harkins objected to the admission of the certificates of calibration on the basis of the "confrontation clause and Rule 701 and 702." Harkins argued that the State should have been required to present the testimony of the officer who conducted the calibration tests, and he argues that the admission of the calibration certificate without this testimony violated the confrontation clause.

¶ 5. This Court recently rejected an identical argument[3] in Zoerner v. State, 725 So.2d 811 (Miss.1998), noting that:

Zoerner contends that his right to confrontation was violated by the introduction of these certificates, in the absence of the calibrating officer. However, this argument was squarely rejected in the recent case of Mcllwain v. State, 700 So.2d 586 (Miss.1997). Therefore, Zoerner's argument is without merit.

Zoerner, at 814. In addition to his confrontation clause objection, Harkins argues that the calibration certificate constitutes hearsay evidence which was improperly admitted by the trial court. The State acknowledges that the certificate constituted hearsay but argues that the evidence properly falls under the business records exception and/or the public records exception to the hearsay rule. See: M.R.E. 803(6) and M.R.E. 803(8)[4]. This Court concludes that the calibration certificate was admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, and it is accordingly unnecessary to address the State's argument that the certificates also were admissible under the public records exception.

¶ 6. Mississippi Rules of Evidence 803 provides in part that:

The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is unavailable as a witness:
(6) Records of Regularly Conducted Activity. A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of *320 acts, events, conditions, opinions or diagnosis, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony or other qualified witness or self-authenticated pursuant to Rule 902(11), unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. The term "business" as used in this paragraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.

¶ 7. We conclude that the actions of a calibration officer in performing his customary role of certifying the calibration of intoxilyzers properly falls under the business records exception to the hearsay rule in Rule 803(6), unless "the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness." Thus, the State should properly be permitted to introduce calibration certificates without violating the hearsay rule unless the defendant is able to demonstrate some reason why the presumption of trustworthiness generally granted to business records should not apply in a particular case.

¶ 8. In Brown v. State, 268 Ga. 76, 485 S.E.2d 486

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
735 So. 2d 317, 1999 WL 174235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harkins-v-state-miss-1999.