State v. Day

617 P.2d 142, 94 N.M. 753
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 14, 1980
Docket12500
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 617 P.2d 142 (State v. Day) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Day, 617 P.2d 142, 94 N.M. 753 (N.M. 1980).

Opinions

OPINION

FELTER, Justice.

Defendant, Day, was convicted of aggravated burglary and criminal sexual penetration in the second degree. Because of the inability of the Court of Appeals panel to decide the case, it was certified to this Court for decision on appeal. We affirm the judgment and sentence of the trial court.

Appeals from prior trials upon the same charges are Day I, 90 N.M. 154, 560 P.2d 945 (Ct.App.1977), and Day II, 91 N.M. 570, 577 P.2d 878 (Ct.App.1978). In Day I the conviction was reversed because of confusing instructions regarding insanity as a defense and presumptions surrounding that defense, which confusion deprived the defendant of a fair trial. In Day II the conviction was reversed and a new trial was ordered because of prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct.

Since that alleged misconduct is a part of the basis for this appeal, it is set out here in this opinion. As properly allowed by N.M. R.Evid. 609(a) and (b), N.M.S.A.1978, on cross examination of the defendant, the prosecutor brought out that the defendant was convicted of robbery in California in 1965 (defendant was not released from the confinement imposed therefor until less than ten years before the admission of the fact in evidence). Immediately after establishing the robbery conviction, the prosecutor asked defendant, “So the fact that you weren’t carrying a real gun — if you had been carrying a real gun — it would have constituted a federal offense, wouldn’t it?” Day responded that he didn’t know. An objection to that question was then sustained.

The prosecutor then asked the defendant —“Now—-let’s see, you were convicted in 1964 — .” Before the question was completed, an objection and a motion for mistrial were made. The objection was sustained and the jury was admonished to disregard the 1964 conviction. The motion for a mistrial was denied. (Before Rule 609 was amended, effective April 1, 1976, the question concerning the 1964 conviction of Day would have been admissible, but not after.) During rebuttal argument the prosecutor told the jury that he had been accused of withholding evidence, but that counsel for defendant objected to the question about the 1964 conviction and thus succeeded in withholding evidence from the jury.

Several issues were listed in the docketing statement, but not briefed. Those issues are deemed to be abandoned. State v. Brown, 93 N.M. 236, 599 P.2d 389 (Ct.App.1979), writ quashed, 93 N.M. 172, 598 P.2d 215 (1979); State v. Gallegos, 92 N.M. 370, 588 P.2d 1045 (Ct.App.1978), cert. denied, 92 N.M. 353, 588 P.2d 554 (1978). Four issues remain for decision on appeal. They were correctly identified by Chief Judge Wood in his proposed opinion affirming the conviction. While Judge Wood’s opinion failed to win concurrence from other members of the Court of Appeals panel, we agree with his opinion and adopt it with modifications. The remaining issues are dealt with as stated below.

I.Whether the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article II, Section 15 of the New Mexico Constitution prevented the retrial of defendant by reason of the prosecutorial misconduct, from which there resulted a reversal in Day III
II.Whether defendant was properly restricted in his cross examination of the victim when the court sustained the prosecutor’s objections to six of defendant’s questions?
III. Whether admission of testimony of a verbal exchange between an officer and defendant as a part of the State’s case-in-chief was error?
IV. Whether permitting defendant to be cross examined concerning his 1965 California robbery conviction was error, inasmuch as robbery with a toy pistol in California may have been a misdemeanor (Calif.Penal Code § 211 (West 1970))?

I.

It may be argued that the prosecutor acted in good faith when he attempted to question the defendant about the 1964 conviction. (The question would have been admissible under Rule 609 before that rule was amended effective April 1, 1976.) In any event, nothing in the record indicates that the prosecutor asked the question in bad faith or in any posture other than a possible lack of familiarity with the amended rule. Moreover, the admonition by the Court at the time effectively eliminated the incompleted question as prejudicial error.

But the Court of Appeals concluded that the prosecutor’s rebuttal comment to the jury concerning the 1964 conviction was prejudicial and purposeful misconduct, as was his hypothetical question about the 1965 federal gem offense, had the gun been real. Day II, 91 N.M. at 572-3, 577 P.2d at 880-81. We agree with that conclusion. The question before us is whether such “purposeful” misconduct created a double jeopardy bar to the retrial of the defendant.

The owner of the cause of action against the defendant is the State of New Mexico, composed of all of its citizens, and not the prosecutor who was guilty of the “purposeful” misconduct. Philosophically, to dismiss the case because of such misconduct, would appear to assess a penalty against the innocent citizens of the State and to let go without sanction the actual wrongdoer who alone engaged in the misconduct. Since the body of judicial interpretation relating to double jeopardy in the context in which it arises in this case is without adequate clarity, a philosophical consideration of that constitutional provision, as well as discussion in some detail of the applicable case law, is appropriate.

Important constitutional questions present themselves in this case. The double jeopardy clause in Article II, Section 15 of the New Mexico Constitution is subject to the same construction and interpretation as its counterpart in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. State v. Rogers, 90 N.M. 604, 566 P.2d 1142 (1971). Accordingly, the defendant relies heavily upon Lee v. United States, 432 U.S. 23, 97 S.Ct. 2141, 53 L.Ed.2d 80 (1977) and United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 96 S.Ct. 1075, 47 L.Ed.2d 267 (1976). In Lee, it was held that omission in the criminal information of essential allegations of “knowingly” and “intentionally” depriving the victim of his property in a theft case, followed by dismissal for failure to provide adequate notice of the crime charged, did not create a double jeopardy bar to retrial even though the • court had heard the evidence before dismissal. In discussing the double jeopardy claim in Lee the United States Supreme Court nevertheless referred to Dinitz as follows:

It follows under Dinitz that there was no double jeopardy barrier to petitioner’s retrial unless the judicial or prosecutorial error that prompted petitioner’s motion was “intended to provoke” the motion or was otherwise “motivated by bad faith or undertaken to harass or prejudice” petitioner. (Emphasis added.)

432 U.S. at 33-4, 97 S.Ct. at 2147.

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Bluebook (online)
617 P.2d 142, 94 N.M. 753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-day-nm-1980.