Kuntz v. McCaughtry

806 F. Supp. 1373, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18023, 1992 WL 345658
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedNovember 24, 1992
DocketCiv. A. No. 91-C-869
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 806 F. Supp. 1373 (Kuntz v. McCaughtry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kuntz v. McCaughtry, 806 F. Supp. 1373, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18023, 1992 WL 345658 (E.D. Wis. 1992).

Opinion

ORDER

TERENCE T. EVANS, Chief Judge.

Petitioner Harold W. Kuntz is presently imprisoned at Waupun Correctional Institution. He has filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus on two grounds: (1) that a confession obtained in violation of Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), reh’g denied 452 U.S. 973, 101 S.Ct. 3128, 69 L.Ed.2d 984, was admitted as substantive evidence of guilt against him during his state court trial; and (2) that the prosecution was relieved of proving an element of the arson charge. Mr. Kuntz has unsuccessfully sought relief on these issues in state court. The Wisconsin Supreme Court resolved both issues on a finding of harmless error. Mr. Kuntz has not taken issue with the facts found by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when considering his case. Assuming those facts to be true, the following tragedy unfolded on March 1, 1987.1

Harold Kuntz’s estranged wife, Karen Kuntz, and two of her daughters were living in the Twin Oaks Trailer Court near Whitewater, Wisconsin. As Mrs. Kuntz returned to the trailer park at about 10 p.m., she saw Mr. Kuntz’s pickup truck with its light off near the park entrance; she recognized Mr. Kuntz as the driver. Mrs. Kuntz entered her mobile home to find a fire burning inside. The back door of the locked trailer had been pried open and fires had been deliberately set in two areas of the bedroom. Her daughter, Sandy Bower, was found unconscious on the floor near the front door, her eyes blackened and her head bleeding. She had suffered ten wounds on her skull inflicted with a blunt instrument with a thin wedge point. She died from those injuries 18 days later.

[1375]*1375Shortly before the fire Mr. Kuntz had threatened Karen saying that he would destroy everything she owned and kill her children if she went through with a divorce. The most recent threat had come less than a week before. Several other witnesses at numerous times had heard Mr. Kuntz threaten harm to Mrs. Kuntz’s property and children. Mrs. Kuntz had seen Mr. Kuntz’s truck drive past her trailer four or five times about a week prior to the fire. Her answering machine had picked up a telephone call from Mr. Kuntz at approximately 9 p.m. on the night of the fire.

Mr. Kuntz was tried before a jury in Jefferson County circuit court for the offenses of first degree murder in violation of Wisconsin Statute § 940.01, arson to a building in violation of section 943.02(1), and committing a battery during a burglary in violation of section 943.10(2). He testified on his own behalf at trial and admitted that he drove to the trailer court on March 1 around 10 p.m. He claimed to have merely driven by the trailer without stopping because Mrs. Kuntz’s car was not there. After five days of trial the jury found him guilty of the three counts, and on October 28,1987, Judge Arnold K. Schumann sentenced Mr. Kuntz to life on the count of murder plus two 20-year consecutive sentences on the other offenses.

On appeal, after the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused certification, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed the arson conviction and affirmed the convictions for first degree murder and burglary/battery. The Wisconsin Supreme Court subsequently reinstated the arson conviction and affirmed the other two counts. See State v. Kuntz, 160 Wis.2d 722, 467 N.W.2d 531 (1991). Mr. Kuntz moved for reconsideration of the decision. The Supreme Court denied the motion but amended its opinion.

THE CONCLUSIVE PRESUMPTION

The arson statute under which Mr. Kuntz was convicted, Wis.Stat. § 943.-02(l)(a), requires the state to prove that a building has been damaged by fire. That statute, though, does not define “building.” While instructing the jury on this offense, Judge Schumann told the jury that “[a] mobile home is a building.” Mr. Kuntz contends that Judge Schumann’s instruction was an impermissible mandatory conclusive presumption that required the jury to find that the state had proved that a building had been damaged by fire if it found that the structure damaged was a mobile home.

The due process clause “protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.” Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 520, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 2457, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1978) (quoting In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1072, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970)). This “bedrock” principle prohibits the state from using evi-dentiary presumptions in a jury charge that have the effect of relieving the state of its burden of persuasion beyond a reasonable doubt on each essential element of a crime. Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 313, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 1970, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985).

The threshold inquiry in this type of analysis is to determine whether the challenged portion of the instruction creates a “mandatory presumption” or merely a “permissive inference,” focusing on the specific language challenged as well as the jury charge as a whole. Franklin, 471 U.S. at 313-15, 105 S.Ct. at 1970-71. A permissive inference suggests to the jury a possible conclusion to be drawn if the state proves predicate facts, but does not require that conclusion. A mandatory presumption instructs the jury that it must infer the presumed fact if the state proves certain predicate facts. Id. at 314, 105 S.Ct. at 1971. A mandatory presumption may be either conclusive or rebuttable. A conclusive presumption removes the presumed element from the case once the state has proved those predicate facts. A rebuttable presumption requires the jury to find the presumed element unless the defendant persuades the jury that such a finding is unwarranted. Id. at 314 n. 2, 105 S.Ct. at 1971 n. 2; Sandstrom, 442 U.S. at 517-518, 99 S.Ct. at 2456. Mandatory conclusive presumptions are impermissible because in [1376]*1376addition to overriding the presumption of innocence, such presumptions invade the jury’s fact-finding function.2 Carella v. California, 491 U.S. 263, 264, 109 S.Ct. 2419, 2420, 105 L.Ed.2d 218 (1989), reh’g denied, 492 U.S. 937, 110 S.Ct. 23, 106 L.Ed.2d 636.

The requirement that a building be damaged by fire is clearly an essential element of section 943.02(l)(a). Indeed, it is the key difference between that crime and the lesser crime of section 943.03, which covers arson to property other than buildings. The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed that the instruction “[a] mobile home is a building” was a mandatory conclusive presumption regarding an element of the arson charge:

Proof of the predicate fact that a mobile home has been damaged by fire requires the jury to conclusively presume that an element of the arson offense has been proved. The instruction as a whole did not negate this conclusive presumption.

Kuntz, 160 Wis.2d at 737-38,

Related

State v. Manuel Garcia
2020 WI App 71 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2020)
State v. Landrum
528 N.W.2d 36 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
806 F. Supp. 1373, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18023, 1992 WL 345658, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuntz-v-mccaughtry-wied-1992.