State v. JohnsonState v. Johnson
Louisiana‘s system of responsive verdicts has constituted a distinctive aspect of this state‘s law “[s]ince before the turn of the century,” State v. Porter, 93-1106, p. 4, (La.7/5/94), 639 So.2d 1137, 1140, although it has been questioned elsewhere. See Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 334-35, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 3007, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976). We observed in Porter that, “[t]reating the jury‘s prerogative to return a responsive verdict similar to the jury‘s power of nullification, this court has consistently held that the jury must be given the option to convict the defendant of the lesser offense, even though the evidence clearly and overwhelmingly supported a conviction of the charged crime.” Porter, 93-1106 at 4, 639 So.2d at 1140. We granted relator‘s application to reverse the decision below because the court of appeal disregarded this essential principle of jury lenity and misapplied harmless-error analysis based on overwhelming evidence of the charged crime in a case in which the trial court eliminated any possibility of compromise by withholding from jurors responsive verdicts for lesser included offenses, and thereby committed them to an all-or-nothing choice between guilty and not guilty.
Relator was tried and convicted by a jury for battery on a police officer in violation of
During a recess following jury selection, the trial court rejected a joint proposal by counsel for the state and defense that it’ charge jurors with respect to the responsive verdicts of simple battery of a police officer outside of a correctional facility, and simple battery. At the close of the
On appeal, the Second Circuit agreed with the trial court that commission of the offense of battery on a police officer in a jail or correctional facility is an essential element of the crime charged but also concurred with the lower court that one of the lesser verdicts proposed by the defense, simple battery on a police officer (i.e., outside of a correctional facility), was not properly responsive to the charged offense. State v. Johnson, 33,791 (La.App. 2nd Cir.10/20/00), 771 So.2d 798. As to simple battery and attempted simple battery, the court of appeal found that the trial court had erred in eliminating those responsive verdicts but that the error was harmless because the evidence overwhelmingly supported conviction for the charged offense, i.e., all witnesses testified that relator was an inmate in a correctional center when he struck the victim, and that the victim was a law enforcement officer whose “broken nose belie[d] the possibility that the battery was only attempted.” Johnson, 33,791 at 11-12, 771 So.2d at 805-06. The court of appeal accordingly affirmed relator‘s conviction and, rejecting the trial judge‘s attempts to sentence relator to less than the statutory minimum following his adjudication as a triple offender, ordered relator to serve a term of life imprisonment at hard labor. Johnson, 33,791 at 13-14, 771 So.2d at 806-07;
Because the legislature did not provide the offense of battery on a police officer with a list of responsive verdicts in
The court of appeal correctly found in the present case that simple battery, defined in
On the other hand, simple battery of a police officer producing injury that requires medical attention was not a proper responsive verdict to the charged offense in the present case because evidence sufficient to support conviction for the latter crime is not necessarily sufficient to support conviction for the former. In addition, despite the broad language of
The correct responsive verdicts in this case were therefore:
(1) Guilty as charged (battery on a police officer when the offender is in the custody of a correctional facility) (felony grade);
(2) Guilty of battery on a police officer (misdemeanor grade);
(3) Guilty of simple battery (misdemeanor)
(4) Not guilty.
In addition, a trial judge in Louisiana must charge with respect to responsive verdicts,
However, as our decision in Porter plainly indicates, Louisiana follows a different course: though the jury‘s plenary power of compromise does not altogether preclude harmless-error analysis when a trial court has erred with respect to charging lesser and included offenses, it does place that analysis beyond a purely quantitative measure of the evidence presented at trial. Harmless-error analysis may apply in a case in which a trial judge inadvertently omits one or more responsive verdicts or lesser included offenses but includes others in its jury charge and the jury rejects a compromise by returning a verdict of guilty as charged. See, e.g., Henry, 449 So.2d at 489 (failure to charge the jury as to forcible rape in a prosecution for aggravated rape was harmless, in part because “[a]nother compromise verdict, simple rape, was available to the jury.“); State v. Reese, 472 So.2d 76, 78 (La.App. 5th Cir.1985)(“Here, Reese was convicted as charged. Had the jury been inclined to find him guilty of a lesser crime, for sympathy reasons or whatever, the options were there.“); State v. Nolen, 461 So.2d 1073, 1079 (La.App. 5th Cir. 1984)(same). This approach has widespread application. See, e.g., Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 647, 111 S.Ct. 2491, 2505, 115 L.Ed.2d 555 (1991)(When capital jury was given the option of finding a lesser included noncapital offense of second degree murder, “[t]he central concern of Beck [v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980) ],” that of eliminating distortion of the factfinding process by giving the jury an all-or-nothing choice, “is simply not implicated
However, in Louisiana, a trial judge has no authority to decide unilaterally that an instruction on lesser and included offenses is not necessary because overwhelming evidence exists to convict the defendant on the crime charged and reasonable jurors therefore could not rationally acquit on the greater offense but could convict on a lesser offense. The court has limited authority to exclude those statutory responsive verdicts provided for specific offenses by
In Louisiana, juries are sworn to render a verdict “according to the law and the evidence.”
The decision of the court of appeal is therefore reversed, relator‘s conviction and sentence are vacated, and this case is remanded
DECISION OF COURT OF APPEAL REVERSED; CONVICTION AND SENTENCE VACATED; CASE REMANDED.