State v. Opheim

169 N.W.2d 716, 84 S.D. 227, 1969 S.D. LEXIS 101
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 29, 1969
DocketFile 10442
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 169 N.W.2d 716 (State v. Opheim) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota 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. Opheim, 169 N.W.2d 716, 84 S.D. 227, 1969 S.D. LEXIS 101 (S.D. 1969).

Opinion

HOMEYER, Judge.

The defendant, Marvin Opheim, was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Brookings County, South Dakota, of the crime of obtaining property under false pretenses. He now con *228 tends he was denied his right to a speedy trial and his conviction should be reversed and the charge dismissed.

The offense occurred on January 7, 1963. A complaint was. filed against the defendant, as Thomas E. Stanfield, the name-appearing on the check, in February, 1963. On February 17, 1964, he was sentenced to a term of from one to ten years by the District Court of Lincoln County, Kansas, on a charge of forgery in the second degree. When notified by the FBI that Stan-field's true name was Marvin Opheim, a new complaint was-filed under that name on February 26, 1964. The next day a warrant for his arrest was issued and a detainer filed with the warden of the Kansas State Penitentiary. On June 12, 1964, Opheim was sentenced to a term of from one to three years by the United States District Court for the District of Kansas on a charge of transportation in interstate commerce of a stolen motor vehicle, the sentence to run concurrently with the sentence he was then serving in the Kansas State Penitentiary. He was: paroled from the latter on March 10, 1966, and then confined to the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, from that date to September 20, 1966.

It reasonably appears from the record that the defendant mailed a request for trial to South Dakota law enforcement officials in Brookings County shortly after his initial incarceration in Kansas; that he was advised by a letter from the state's attorney that he would not be then tried on the South Dakota charger that after being so told he wrote the state's attorney by certified mail delivered September 3, 1964, asking for appointment of counsel to protect his rights. On June 12, 1965, he wrote to the Clerk of Courts of Brookings County inquiring as to disposition of his motion for immediate trial. 1

Before February 10, 1966, Kansas authorities notified South Dakota officials that Opheim would be paroled on March 10, 1966, and they could take custody of him on that date under *229 their detainer. South Dakota officials appear to have ignored such notice and Opheim was taken to Leavenworth where he remained until the expiration of his federal sentence on September 20, 1966. Thereafter the Sheriff of Brookings County took him into custody and he appeared in Municipal Court at Brookings on October 5, 1966, when bail was fixed and counsel appointed for him. A preliminary hearing was held on October 19th and he was bound over to circuit court. He was arraigned on October 31st and tried on December 8, 1966.

Opheim filed a pro se "Motion for a Speedy Trial, or in the Alternative, Dismissal of the Warrant" in the Municipal Court, Brookings, South Dakota, on August 8, 1966. The state's attorney filed an affidavit in opposition setting forth that Opheim was confined in the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, and a detainer had been filed against him at such institution; that his term would be completed and he would be released on September 20, 1966; that the next term of circuit court in Brook-ings County would convene on September 27, 1966, which would be the first term at which he could possible be tried. He asked that the motion be denied. On August 9, 1966, the Judge of the Municipal Court entered an Order denying the motion.

At the commencement of the trial, Opheim made an oral motion to dismiss on the ground that he had been denied a speedy trial and claimed prejudice because of the inability of a material witness to testify because he was deceased. The court denied the motion at that time, but stated it would be reconsidered after trial and the defendant was allowed ten days after completion of the trial to secure additional evidence to support his motion. The motion was renewed at the time of sentence on December 20, 1966 and again denied.

Every accused is guaranteed a speedy trial by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States 2 and his right thereto is enforceable against the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment. Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, *230 87 S.Ct. 988, 18 L.Ed.2d 1. Likewise, under the Constitution of this state every accused within the jurisdiction of the state is entitled to a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county where the offense is alleged to have been committed.. Article VI, Section 7, Constitution of South Dakota. In addition to these federal and state constitutional rights an accused in this state has the statutory right to a prompt disposition of charges against him. 3

In Smith v. Hooey, (January 20, 1969) 393 U.S. 374, 89 S.Ct. 575, 21 L.Ed.2d 607, the petitioner was incarcerated in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, and although he made repeated requests to the State of Texas for a speedy trial, he was denied the same for more than six years. He then filed a motion in the trial court to dismiss the charge against him for want of prosecution. No action was taken on the motion. He then brought a mandamus proceeding in the Supreme Court of Texas asking for an order to show cause why the charge should not be dismissed. Mandamus was refused. The United States Supreme Court ruled: “Upon the petitioner's demand, Texas had a constitutional duty to make a diligent, good-faith effort to bring him before the * * * court for trial."

By its decision in the Hooey case, the Supreme Court exploded the concept that when separate sovereignties are involved no duty devolves upon the prosecuting state to seek custody for trial. It is now established law that federal due process mandatorily requires when a prisoner makes demand for a speedy trial, the prosecuting state must make a diligent, good-faith effort to bring him to trial and absence from the state by incarceration elsewhere no longer constitutes good cause for delay.

In State v. Harrison, 83 S.D. 440, 160 N.W.2d 415, we held "where delay is caused by defendant's commission of a crime in another jurisdiction and he is convicted and imprisoned *231 therein, such delay is caused by the prisoner's own act and not having made a demand for trial or taken any action to that end, he is not denied a speedy trial under either the South Dakota or United States Constitution." We there inferentially recognized in case of a demand for trial there might be a constitutional duty to bring an out-state prisoner to trial if demand was made. We believe the record here shows that Opheim for at least two years before he was taken into custody by a South Dakota sheriff demanded trial in this state and thus a constitutional duty rested with prosecuting officials to attempt to bring him to trial.

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Related

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Bluebook (online)
169 N.W.2d 716, 84 S.D. 227, 1969 S.D. LEXIS 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-opheim-sd-1969.