State v. Bellamy

CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedOctober 25, 2016
DocketSC19337
StatusPublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Bellamy, (Colo. 2016).

Opinion

****************************************************** The ‘‘officially released’’ date that appears near the beginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be published in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the beginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the ‘‘officially released’’ date appearing in the opinion. In no event will any such motions be accepted before the ‘‘officially released’’ date. All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecti- cut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the electronic version of an opinion and the print version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Con- necticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest print version is to be considered authoritative. The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears on the Commission on Official Legal Publications Electronic Bulletin Board Service and in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be repro- duced and distributed without the express written per- mission of the Commission on Official Legal Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. ****************************************************** STATE v. BELLAMY—FIRST CONCURRENCE

ROGERS, C. J., concurring. I agree with the defen- dant, Brandon Montrell Bellamy, that this court’s marked expansion of the doctrine of implied waiver of claims of jury instructional error in State v. Kitchens, 299 Conn. 447, 10 A.3d 942 (2011), was mistaken and, therefore, I would overrule that decision and return to the much narrower conception of implied waiver that previously governed our jurisprudence in this area. Application of a more restrictive implied waiver rule leads me to conclude that the defendant’s claim of instructional error is reviewable on its merits pursuant to State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239–40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989).1 Nevertheless, the defendant’s claim fails under Golding because it does not raise a claim of constitutional error.2 It is well established that ‘‘Golding [review] is a nar- row exception to the general rule that an appellate court will not entertain a claim that has not been raised in the trial court. The reason for the rule is obvious: to permit a party to raise a claim on appeal that has not been raised at trial—after it is too late for the trial court or the opposing party to address the claim—would encourage trial by ambuscade, which is unfair to both the trial court and the opposing party. . . . Neverthe- less, because constitutional claims implicate fundamen- tal rights, it also would be unfair automatically and categorically to bar a defendant from raising a meritori- ous constitutional claim that warrants a new trial solely because the defendant failed to identify the violation at trial. Golding strikes an appropriate balance between these competing interests: the defendant may raise such a constitutional claim on appeal, and the appellate tribu- nal will review it, but only if the trial court record is adequate for appellate review.’’ (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Moye v. Commissioner of Correction, 316 Conn. 779, 784–85, 114 A.3d 925 (2015). Upon reflec- tion, I believe that Kitchens improperly upset the bal- ance struck by Golding for a substantial category of cases, those raising jury instructional error, and did so for questionable reasons. Returning to a narrower implied waiver rule would support the goals of Golding yet prevent the abuse of the leniency it affords. In Kitchens, this court announced the following gen- eral rule to determine whether a claim of jury instruc- tional error will be deemed to have been waived by trial counsel and, therefore, unreviewable on appeal: ‘‘[W]hen the trial court provides counsel with a copy of the proposed jury instructions, allows a meaningful opportunity for their review, solicits comments from counsel regarding changes or modifications and coun- sel affirmatively accepts the instructions proposed or given, the defendant may be deemed to have knowledge of any potential flaws therein and to have waived implic- itly the constitutional right to challenge the instructions on direct appeal. Such a determination by the reviewing court must be based on a close examination of the record and the particular facts and circumstances of each case.’’ State v. Kitchens, supra, 299 Conn. 482–83. The court explained that the foregoing rule rests on an ‘‘inference, or ‘assumption’ of fact’’; (emphasis omitted) id., 487 n.25; that counsel was aware of the defect later raised on appeal and decided not to assert it at trial, and, therefore, that a waiver could be found without evidence that counsel actually knew of the defect. Id., 483. In that sense, we acknowledged, the implied waiver rule depended on a ‘‘legal fiction.’’ Id., 487 n.25. Upon further consideration, I am convinced that the inference upon which the Kitchens rule relied was an unreasonably broad one, and that the circumstances described in Kitchens more accurately reflect, in the majority of instances, a forfeiture of the right to claim a specific error in the instructions rather than a waiver of that right.3 See State v. Davis, 311 Conn. 468, 495–503, 88 A.3d 445 (2014) (Palmer, J., concurring). As a result, Kitchens effectively has carved out a particular cate- gory of unpreserved trial error and deemed it unworthy of review pursuant to State v. Golding, supra, 213 Conn. 239–40. While Golding permits appellate consideration of any other type of unpreserved constitutional claim, Kitchens revokes the right to such review by invoking the unrealistic assumption that defendants, through their counsel, knowingly and purposefully have relin- quished that right in the described circumstances.4 In my view, the benefits of this approach do not outweigh the costs, either to defendants with meritorious claims of harmful instructional error, to the court system or to society as a whole. In Kitchens, we relied on a number of additional factors in support of an expansive implied waiver rule, among them the remaining availability of habeas review. See State v. Kitchens, supra, 299 Conn. 496–98. Upon further reflection, I now realize that, to a defen- dant with a meritorious constitutional claim, habeas review is not an effective and equivalent substitute for direct appellate review. First, because of the delay attendant to filing a habeas petition, receiving a full hearing and awaiting a decision thereon, a party who ultimately prevails in that forum likely will have spent years of his or her life incarcerated for a conviction that was constitutionally infirm. It is no answer that these cases are relatively few. Second, unlike a direct appeal decided pursuant to Golding, a habeas appeal presents an inhospitable framework for novel constitu- tional claims or those that require the overruling of established authority in order to succeed. Compare In re Yasiel R., 317 Conn. 773, 780–81, 120 A.3d 1188 (2015) (party may prevail under third prong of Golding even in absence of existing, binding precedent supporting his or her constitutional claim), with Ledbetter v. Com- missioner of Correction, 275 Conn. 451, 461–62, 880 A.2d 160 (2005) (‘‘numerous state and federal courts have concluded that counsel’s failure to advance novel legal theories or arguments does not constitute ineffec- tive performance’’ and citing cases),5 cert. denied sub nom. Ledbetter v. Lantz, 546 U.S. 1187, 126 S. Ct. 1368, 164 L. Ed.

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State v. Bellamy, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bellamy-conn-2016.