State v. Amini

15 P.3d 541, 331 Or. 384
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 2000
DocketS45699
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 15 P.3d 541 (State v. Amini) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Amini, 15 P.3d 541, 331 Or. 384 (Or. 2000).

Opinion

15 P.3d 541 (2000)
331 Or. 384

STATE of Oregon, Petitioner on Review,
v.
Dariush David AMINI, Respondent on Review.

(CC 94-01-30513; CA A88710; SC S45699)

Supreme Court of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted November 10, 1999.
Decided December 14, 2000.

*542 Ann Kelley, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause for petitioner on review. With her on the briefs were Hardy Myers, Attorney General, and Michael D. Reynolds, Solicitor General.

Louis R. Miles, Deputy Public Defender, Salem, argued the cause for respondent on review. With him on the brief was David E. Groom, State Public Defender.

Before CARSON, Chief Justice, and GILLETTE, Van HOOMISSEN, DURHAM, and LEESON Justices.[**]

LEESON, J.

The issue in this criminal proceeding is whether a jury instruction advising the jury of the consequences of a finding that defendant was guilty except for insanity violated defendant's right to trial by an impartial jury under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution. The Court of Appeals held that it did. State v. Amini, 154 Or.App. 589, 963 P.2d 65 (1998). For the reasons that follow, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to that court to consider defendant's other assignments of error.

Defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, and one count of second-degree assault with a firearm. Those charges stemmed from the deaths of defendant's wife and a foreign exchange student who resided with defendant's wife, and gunshot injuries to another student who was visiting at the residence. At trial, defendant raised the affirmative defense of mental disease or defect constituting insanity. ORS 161.295; ORS 161.305.[1] ORS 161.313 provides that, when the issue of insanity under ORS 161.295 is submitted to the jury for determination, "the court shall instruct the jury in accordance with ORS 161.327." ORS 161.327, in turn, lists the circumstances under which a defendant may be placed in the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) for care and treatment after a verdict of guilty except for insanity.

*543 At defendant's trial, the state asked the trial court to give Uniform Criminal Jury Instruction (UCrJI) 1122, which closely parallels the wording of ORS 161.327.[2] Defendant excepted, arguing that the mandate of ORS 161.313, combined with the jury instruction required by ORS 161.327, unconstitutionally suggested to the jury that it should and could consider the consequences of a guilty-except-for-insanity verdict in its deliberations. The trial court overruled defendant's objection and gave UCrJI 1122. The court also instructed the jury not to consider what sentence the court might impose if defendant were found guilty. The jury subsequently found defendant guilty.

On appeal, defendant argued that the trial court erred in giving UCrJI 1122. He contended that the instruction violated the guarantee of the right to trial by an impartial jury under Article I, section 11, because the instruction could induce the jury to believe that a finding of insanity would lead to defendant's release.

A majority of the Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, agreed. The majority believed that, in State ex rel. Ricco v. Biggs, 198 Or. 413, 255 P.2d 1055 (1953), this court had held that the right to trial by an impartial jury included the right to a trial that was evaluated for fairness under the same due process standards as those used to evaluate a fair trial under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Amini, 154 Or.App. at 594, 963 P.2d 65.[3]*544 The majority concluded that the instruction was unfair, because

"the sentence that a defendant will receive if convicted, and the disposition that will be made of a defendant who is found to have a mental disorder, are not matters for the jury's consideration, and juries should not be instructed regarding them."

Id. at 595-96, 963 P.2d 65.

Judge Warren dissented. He maintained that defendant's appeal "raises no issue of jury impartiality pursuant to Article I, section 11," and that the only issue was whether giving UCrJI 1122 violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Amini, 154 Or.App. at 603, 963 P.2d 65 (Warren, J., dissenting). Judge Warren analyzed whether giving UCrJI 1122 deprived defendant of due process and concluded that the trial court's instruction that the jury was not to consider what sentence the court might impose if the jury found defendant guilty made it unlikely that the jury had applied UCrJI 1122 in a manner that was fundamentally unfair to defendant. He therefore would have affirmed the conviction. Id. at 620, 963 P.2d 65 (Warren, J., dissenting). This court allowed the state's petition for review.

Although defendant asserted, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that Article I, section 11, does not permit a jury instruction like UCrJI 1122, we initially must determine whether Article I, section 11, includes a broad fairness standard for reviewing such an instruction. We conclude that it does not.

In interpreting an original provision of the Oregon Constitution, such as Article I, section 11, this court considers the specific wording of the provision, the historical circumstances that led to its creation, and the case law surrounding it. Priest v. Pearce, 314 Or. 411, 415-16, 840 P.2d 65 (1992). The purpose of the inquiry is "to understand the wording in the light of the way that wording would have been understood and used by those who created the provision." Vannatta v. Keisling, 324 Or. 514, 530, 931 P.2d 770 (1997). This court also seeks to "apply faithfully the principles embodied in the Oregon Constitution to modern circumstances as those circumstances arise." State v. Rogers, 330 Or. 282, 297, 4 P.3d 1261

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Bluebook (online)
15 P.3d 541, 331 Or. 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-amini-or-2000.