State v. Berry

470 A.2d 881, 124 N.H. 203, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 423
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedDecember 7, 1983
DocketNo. 81-469
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 470 A.2d 881 (State v. Berry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Berry, 470 A.2d 881, 124 N.H. 203, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 423 (N.H. 1983).

Opinion

Batchelder, J.

The principal issue presented in this appeal is the remedy available to a criminal defendant whose request for a [206]*206jury instruction on a lesser-included offense was denied, and where jury disagreement resulted in a mistrial. We hold that the defendant, in the absence of a mistrial resulting from judicial or prosecutorial overreaching, was entitled only to a new trial.

The questions herein presented arise from an incident on Route 101 in Milford, New Hampshire, on October 6, 1979, when a vehicle operated by the defendant collided with a vehicle driven by Daniel Blanchette. Blanchette and his two passengers died as a result of injuries sustained in the collision. The defendant was subsequently arrested, indicted on three counts of negligent homicide and tried in the Superior Court (Dalicmis, J.). Each indictment alleged that the defendant was under the influence of intoxicating liquor at the time of the accident, and the defendant requested a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of driving while intoxicated, which the court denied. After two days of deliberations, the jury failed to reach a verdict and the defendant moved for a mistrial, which the trial court granted. The defendant then filed a motion to dismiss the indictments, relying upon the failure of the trial court to instruct on the lesser-included offense. The motion was denied by Souter, J., and the defendant went to trial on November 16, 1981, upon the original indictments. At that trial, the court instructed the jury on the lesser-included offense as requested by defendant. The defendant was found guilty on all counts of negligent homicide.

We recently have held that a defendant is entitled to have the benefit of a “lesser-included offense” instruction given when the evidence furnishes a rational basis for a finding of guilt on the lesser offense rather than on the greater offense. State v. Cameron, 121 N.H. 348, 350, 430 A.2d 138, 139 (1981). “Providing the jury with the ‘third option’ of convicting on a lesser included offense ensures that the jury will accord the defendant the full benefit of the reasonable doubt standard.” Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 634 (1980).

The defendant claims that the failure of the trial court in his first trial to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense prevented him from receiving the benefit of the “third option,” and that therefore the indictments against him should have been dismissed. If we assume that the trial court erred in denying the defendant’s request for instructions, and that such error was prejudicial to the defendant, we hold that he has had the benefit of his proper remedy — a new trial.

Had the jury returned a verdict in the first trial finding the defendant guilty of the greater offense, in the absence of a lesser-included offense instruction which was shown to be legally warranted, the conviction should have been set aside and the defendant given a [207]*207new trial. See State v. Cameron, supra at 350-51, 430 A.2d at 139-40. Berry did in fact receive a new trial, not because he was unlawfully convicted, but because he was neither convicted nor acquitted of the indicted offenses. At his second trial, he received the instruction dealing with lesser-included offenses, but it availed him nothing. His argument necessarily boils down to the claim that, as things turned out, his chances for a conviction upon a lesser-included offense were greater before the original jury than they were before the second jury. Such an argument has no place in the appellate review process because it is based not upon law but upon speculation.

The defendant further argues that the double jeopardy clauses of the Federal and the State Constitutions, U.S. CONST, amend. V; N.H. Const, pt. I, art. 16, bar reprosecution on the negligent homicide charges. He contends that the failure of the trial court to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense resulted in a mistrial and that the constitutional provisions bar a second trial. Generally, when a first trial is terminated as a result of the court’s granting the defendant’s motion for a mistrial, the guarantee against double jeopardy does not bar a second trial. United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 485 (1971). An exception to this rule applies when the conduct giving rise to the defendant’s successful motion for a mistrial was intended to provoke the motion, Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 679 (1982); State v. Scarlett, 121 N.H. 37, 39, 426 A.2d 25, 26 (1981) (citing United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611 (1976)), or to prejudice the defendant’s prospects for an acquittal, State v. Scarlett, supra at 39, 426 at 266 (citing United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611 (1976)).

The defendant has not alleged that the trial judge, in failing to give instructions on the lesser-included offense, intended to prejudice the defendant or to provoke him into requesting a mistrial. Rather, he argues that the trial court’s error was so fundamental and prejudicial that reprosecution should be barred. Judicial error, without the intentional conduct contemplated in the exception, however, has never been sufficient to bar a new trial. United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 93 (1978) (quoting United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 485 (1971) (opinion of Harlan, J.)); see Oregon v. Kennedy, supra at 675-76. We hold, therefore, that the trial court was correct in denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

The defendant also has raised several issues concerning the admissibility of expert opinion and demonstrative evidence. The first deals with the qualifications of the State’s expert witness, Dr. [208]*208Mosley. “The question whether a witness offered as an expert may testify as such is . . . one addressed to the sound discretion of the court below.” Dowling v. Shattuck, 91 N.H. 234, 236, 17 A.2d 529, 532 (1941). The ultimate question to be answered by the trial judge is whether the evidence will aid the jury in its search for the truth. Id. On the record before us, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that Dr. Mosley’s knowledge, on the two narrow issues on which he was allowed to testify, was sufficiently superior to the knowledge of persons in general as to make Dr. Mosley’s views of value to the jury. See id. Dr. Mosley’s lack of specialized education goes to the weight of his opinion and not to its admissibility. Freeman v. Scahill, 92 N.H. 471, 473, 32 A.2d 817, 818 (1943).

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Bluebook (online)
470 A.2d 881, 124 N.H. 203, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-berry-nh-1983.