State v. Mercadel

874 So. 2d 829, 2004 WL 1153337
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 25, 2004
Docket2003-KA-3015
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 874 So. 2d 829 (State v. Mercadel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Mercadel, 874 So. 2d 829, 2004 WL 1153337 (La. 2004).

Opinion

874 So.2d 829 (2004)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Parrell MERCADEL.

No. 2003-KA-3015.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 25, 2004.

*830 Charles C. Foti, Jr., Attorney General, Eddie J. Jordan, Jr., District Attorney, Claire A. White, Valentin M. Solino, for applicant.

William R. Campbell, Jr., Katherine M. Mattes, New Orleans, Pamela R. Metzger, for respondent.

CALOGERO, Chief Justice.

In this direct appeal, the State challenges a judgment issued by an Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judge that declared unconstitutional various articles of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure,[1] as well as various provisions of Title 15 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes,[2] all related directly or indirectly to grand jury process in Orleans Parish. The district court found that the provisions were prohibited local or special laws under La. Const. art. III, § 12(A) (1974),[3] as interpreted *831 by this court's decision in State v. Dilosa, 02-2222 (La.6/27/03), 848 So.2d 546. As a result of this finding, the district judge granted the motion filed by defendant, Parrell Mercadel, to quash his indictment for first-degree murder. Finding that the defendant has no standing to challenge the laws because he has failed to establish that application of the subject criminal code articles and statutes had a serious effect on his rights, we reverse the district court judgment declaring the code articles and statutes unconstitutional and quashing the defendant's indictment.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant was indicted by an Orleans Parish grand jury on January 9, 2003, for the first degree murder of Antoine Cantrelle, a charge to which he pled "not guilty" on January 14, 2003. Defense counsel was appointed on February 10, 2003, and a number of pretrial motions were filed by the defendant and the State, but no hearings had been conducted before this court issued the Dilosa opinion on July 27, 2003.

In Dilosa, this court struck down La. Code of Crim. Proc. arts. 412,[4] 413(C),[5] and 414(C)[6] and La.Rev.Stat. 15:114[7] in their entirety, as well as the first sentence of La.Code of Civ. Proc. art. 413(B)[8], all governing Orleans Parish grand jury proceedings, as unconstitutional local laws prohibited by La. Const. art. III, § 12(A)(3), which provides as follows:

Except as otherwise Provided in this constitution, the legislature shall not pass a local or special law:

* * * * *

(3) Concerning any civil or criminal actions, including changing the venue in civil or criminal cases, or regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescribing the effects of judicial sales.

The provisions struck down by this court in Dilosa gave judges in Orleans Parish, and only in Orleans Parish, the unique authority to select all of the grand jurors from the grand jury venire, as opposed to the system of random selection from the venire prevailing elsewhere in the State of Louisiana for selection of all of the grand jurors with the exception of the foreperson. The offending provisions together established procedures, applicable only in Orleans Parish, for the selection of the *832 grand jury venire, the impaneling of the grand jury, selection of the grand jury foreperson, the time for impaneling grand juries and the period of service, and the rotation of judges who select and control the grand jury. The court's finding that the subject provisions were unconstitutional was based on the State's failure to offer "any viable geographic or demographic necessity which would justify the existence of the unique grand jury procedures in Orleans Parish mandated by the statutes." Id., 02-2223 at 5, 848 So.2d at 550.

Before this court's decision in Dilosa, the Louisiana Legislature had made significant changes in the grand jury selection process for Orleans Parish under which the defendant in that case had been indicted, most recently by Act 281[9] of the 2001 legislature. Act 281 of 2001 rewrote La. Code of Crim. Proc. art. 412, governing selection of the grand jury venire in Orleans Parish, to subject all grand juries in the State, including those in Orleans Parish, to the rules established by La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 411, governing selection of grand juries. By the same act, La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 413(B) was amended to eliminate the exclusion of Orleans Parish from the requirement of random selection of grand juries, and La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 413(C), authorizing Orleans Parish district court judges to set the date for the drawing of the grand jury venire by the jury commission, was repealed. As a result of these changes, Orleans Parish was brought in line with the rest of the State relative to the requirement that all grand jurors be chosen by random selection. Because Dilosa addressed an indictment returned by an Orleans Parish grand jury under the law that existed prior to the 2001 amendments, the court noted specifically that the constitutionality of the amended articles was not before the court. Id. at 1, n. 1, 848 So.2d at 548. Because of these changes, the Dilosa decision apparently did not impact indictments returned after August 15, 2001, the effective date of Act 281 of the 2001 Louisiana Legislature.

However, some of the provisions declared unconstitutional by this court in Dilosa were not rewritten or otherwise amended by Act 281 of the 2001 Legislature. Significantly, La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 414(C), which provided for the drawing of the grand jury venire and the impaneling of the grand jury from the venire in Orleans Parish in March and September of each year, was left unchanged. Also not amended was La.Rev. Stat. 15:114, which calls for selection of the grand jurors by Orleans Parish trial judges on a rotating basis. Nevertheless, because of the revisions made to La.Code of Crim. Proc. art. 413(B) and art. 413(C), Orleans Parish judges are no longer authorized to select the grand jurors, meaning that the only remaining viable provision *833 of La.Rev.Stat. 15:114 is the provision authorizing Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judges on a rotating basis to supervise previously-selected grand juries.

Shortly after this court issued the Dilosa decision, on July 9, 2003, defendant's attorney filed a motion to quash his indictment, asserting that the last vestige of La.Rev.Stat. 15:114, governing supervision of Orleans Parish grand juries by Criminal District Court judges on a rotating basis, is unconstitutional because it is a local law prohibited by La. Const. art.

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Bluebook (online)
874 So. 2d 829, 2004 WL 1153337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mercadel-la-2004.