STATE OF OREGON, Respondent on Review, v. JESSE JEROME PHILLIPS, Petitioner on Review.
CC 080431569; CA A140377; SC S059835
Supreme Court of Oregon
Argued and submitted June 13, 2012; resubmitted January 7, decision of Court of Appeals and judgment of circuit court affirmed December 27, 2013
317 P.3d 236
KISTLER, J.
Jamie K. Contreras, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause for respondent on review. Greg Rios, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief. With him on the brief were John R. Kroger, Attorney General, and Anna M. Joyce, Solicitor General.
KISTLER, J.
KISTLER, J.
A jury found defendant guilty of third-degree assault. See
This case arose out of a dispute over a cell phone. The victim sold defendant a cell phone with prepaid minutes. Defendant made a down payment when he got the cell phone and agreed to pay the balance in the future. When defendant failed to pay the balance owed, the victim contacted the cell phone provider and caused the remaining prepaid minutes to be cancelled, angering defendant.
A few days after the victim cancelled the remaining prepaid minutes, the victim and his older brother went over to a neighbor‘s house to smoke a bowl of methamphetamine. When they got there, they discovered that defendant and two of his friends were there, and a fight broke out among the victim, the victim‘s brother, defendant, and defendant‘s two friends. There is no dispute that, during the fight, defendant hit the victim‘s brother.2 There is also no dispute that, during the fight, either defendant or defendant‘s friend hit the victim in the face and broke the bone around the victim‘s eye.3 What is in dispute
First, the jury could have found that defendant initially hit the victim‘s brother, disabling him. After that, defendant‘s two friends held the victim‘s arms while defendant hit the victim in the face, breaking the bone around his eye.
Second, the jury could have found that one of defendant‘s friends hit the victim in the face, breaking the bone around his eye, and that defendant hit the victim‘s brother to prevent him from coming to the victim‘s aid. Under that version of the facts, the jury could have found that defendant did not hit the victim but that he aided and abetted the person who did.
Third, the jury could have found that defendant hit the brother but that, when he did so, defendant was unaware that one of his friends either was hitting or was going to hit the victim. Under that version of the facts, the jury could have found that defendant neither hit the victim nor aided and abetted the person who did.
In instructing the jury, the trial court explained the elements of third-degree assault under
On appeal, defendant assigned error to the trial court‘s refusal to give his requested instruction, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court of Appeals reasoned that defendant “caused” the victim‘s injury within the meaning of the third-degree assault statute if defendant either inflicted the injury himself or aided another in doing so. 242 Or App at 263. The court explained that, because direct infliction of injury and aiding another in inflicting that injury were alternative factual ways of proving a single element of third-degree assault (causation), 10 jurors need not agree which set of facts proved that element. Id. We allowed defendant‘s petition for review to consider whether, either as a matter of statute or constitutional law, at least 10 jurors must agree whether defendant was liable as a principal or as an accomplice.
Before turning to that issue, it is helpful to discuss briefly the crime of third-degree assault.
In Pine, this court quoted the following passage from State v. Nefstad, 309 Or 523, 789 P2d 1326 (1990), to illustrate when a person‘s conduct will be “so extensively intertwined
“‘Joining in the stabbing of a dying victim or restraining the victim so that he cannot avoid the fatal knife thrusts constitutes “personally” committing the homicide. Thus, in the instant case, even if [the] defendant choked and restrained the victim[,] but did not also stab him, nonetheless [the] defendant “personally” committed this homicide[,] and he is directly responsible for it.‘”
Id. at 206 (quoting Nefstad, 309 Or at 543; brackets in Pine); see also id. at 206-07 and n 4 (explaining that, although the issues in Pine and Nefstad were not identical, Nefstad‘s reasoning was persuasive in determining the meaning of “cause” in the third-degree assault statute).
The court also explained in Pine that “the fact that a defendant provided on-the-scene aid to another person who inflicted physical injury upon a victim does not, in itself, render the defendant liable for third-degree assault under that statute.” Id. at 207; see also id. at 205 (concluding that “cause” in
As we read Pine, it stands for the following propositions: A person need not inflict physical injury personally to “cause” that injury within the meaning of
This case differs from Pine in one respect (and in another respect that we discuss later in the opinion). In this case, the trial court‘s instructions permitted the jury to find defendant liable for third-degree assault if he aided and abetted the person who caused the victim‘s physical injury, and defendant has not challenged that instruction on review.5 Specifically, defendant does not dispute on review that, if the jury found that one of his friends hit the victim while defendant hit the victim‘s brother to prevent him from coming to the victim‘s aid, the jury could find defendant liable for third-degree assault because he aided and abetted his friend‘s assault on the victim.
Defendant‘s argument focuses on a different issue. He argues that the trial court erred in not instructing the jury that 10 of its members had to agree whether he hit the victim or whether he aided and abetted the person who did. In State v. Pipkin, 354 Or 513, 316 P3d 255 (2013), we clarified the proper method for analyzing a claim that either the state or federal constitution requires jury concurrence. When a statute specifies alternative means of committing a crime, the initial question is what, as a matter of legislative
In this case, the Court of Appeals began by seeking to determine the legislature‘s intent. As noted above, the Court of Appeals held that, as a matter of legislative intent, “(1) actual infliction of injury and (2) aiding another in doing so are two alternative methods of meeting the ‘causes’ element of a single crime, third-degree assault” and that, as a result, 10 jurors need not agree on how defendant “caused” the victim‘s physical injury. Phillips, 242 Or App at 263. The Court of Appeals’ interpretation of
The Court of Appeals’ reasoning is problematic for another reason.
be separate from and in addition to the elements necessary to prove the principal‘s liability for the underlying offense.
As we reiterated in Pipkin, jury concurrence is required for each legislatively defined element necessary to impose criminal liability. See 354 Or at 527. Moreover, as Blake explained, the elements necessary to prove liability as an aider and abettor ordinarily will not be coextensive with the elements necessary to prove liability as a principal. See 348 Or at 101. It follows that 10 jurors usually will have to agree on the elements necessary to prove that a defendant is liable for aiding and abetting another person‘s commission of a crime.7 Put differently, if the state seeks to hold a defendant liable either as the principal or as an aider and abettor and if a party requests an appropriate instruction, the trial
The question that remains is whether, in light of the facts of this case and the terms of the third-degree assault statute, that error was harmless.8 In this case, the facts permitted the jury to find defendant liable for third-degree assault on one of two bases: (1) defendant hit the victim in the face while defendant‘s friends held the victim‘s arms or (2) one of defendant‘s friends hit the victim in the face while defendant hit the victim‘s brother to keep him from coming to the victim‘s aid.9 Under the first set of facts, the jury could
find that defendant “caused” the victim‘s injury by directly inflicting it. See Pine, 336 Or at 207. Under the second set of facts, the jury could find that defendant‘s conduct was “so extensively intertwined with [another person‘s] infliction of the [victim‘s] injury” that defendant‘s conduct “caused” that injury, as this court explained the meaning of “cause” in Pine. See id. at 207.
Specifically, if defendant had held the victim so that his friend could hit the victim in the face, there would be little dispute that defendant “caused” the resulting physical injury within the meaning of
defendant “caused” the victim‘s injury, as this court defined that term in Pine.
Under Pine, the only two sets of facts that permitted the jury to find defendant liable for third-degree assault were alternative factual ways of proving a single element of third-degree assault—that defendant “caused” the victim‘s physical injury. On this record, the jury was not presented with two competing theories of liability, each of which required proof of discrete, separate facts. Rather, the facts in this case presented the jury with two alternative factual ways of proving the “causes” element of third-degree assault.
That is not the end of the inquiry, however. Even though the trial court‘s failure to give defendant‘s requested instruction did not prejudice defendant‘s right to have 10 jurors agree on each legislatively defined element of the offense,
means of proving a single element. See Pipkin, 354 Or at 527-29 (Article I, section 11); Schad v. Arizona, 501 US 624, 637-38, 111 S Ct 2491, 115 L Ed 2d 555 (1991) (due process).11 And the constitutional question in this case reduces to whether the legislature could provide that a person “causes” physical injury either by directly inflicting it or by engaging in conduct “so extensively intertwined” with inflicting the injury that the conduct can be said to have caused it. See Pine, 336 Or at 207 (describing those two alternative means of causing physical injury).
On that issue, defendant relies solely on the common law to argue that permitting the jury to find him liable for third-degree assault based on either of those two theories violates the state and federal constitutions. He reasons that, because the common law treated principal and accomplice liability as separate, distinct theories, permitting the jury to base its verdict on what amounts to a combination of those theories violates his constitutional rights. Before turning to defendant‘s argument, it is helpful to describe the common law that preceded the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and then turn to the Oregon statutes and cases that preceded the adoption of the relevant part of Article I, section 11, in 1934.
The common law divided persons charged with felonies into three classes: principals in the first degree; principals in the second degree; and accessories before the fact. See Wayne R. LaFave, 2 Substantive Criminal Law § 13.1(b) (2d ed 2003).12 “[A] principal of the first degree is one who does the act, either himself directly, or by means of an innocent agent.” Joel Prentiss Bishop, 1 Commentaries on the Criminal Law § 456 (2d ed 1858). “A principal of the second
degree is one who is present lending his countenance and encouragement, or otherwise aiding, while another does it.” Id.; accord James Fitzjames Stephen, 2 A History of the Criminal Law of England 230 (1883). At common law, a principal in the second degree could be actually or constructively
Viewed through a common-law lens, a person who “caused” physical injury within the meaning of
At common law, the distinction between a principal in the first and second degree had “no practical use or effect whatever.” Bishop, 1 Criminal Law § 456. The state could charge a defendant as a principal in the second degree and prove that he was a principal in the first degree or vice versa.13 Id. As Bishop explained, “[t]he distinction is in all respects without a difference.” Id. Similarly, at common law, “[a] second degree principal could be tried and convicted
even though the person who actually committed the crime had not yet been tried.” LaFave, 2 Substantive Criminal Law § 13.1(d). Whatever distinctions may have existed at common law between principals and accessories before the fact, the common law did not recognize a distinction of any practical significance between principals of the first and second degree.
Oregon went further than the common law. It made no distinction between principals and accessories before the fact. The Deady Code provided:
“All persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether it be felony or misdemeanor, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the crime, or aid and abet in its commission, though not present, are principals, and to be tried and punished as such.”
General Laws of Oregon, Crim Code, ch LIII, § 691, p 573 (Deady 1845-1864). Given that legislative choice, this court held in 1887 that it was immaterial that the indictment charged the defendant as a principal in the victim‘s murder but that the state proved only that the defendant aided and abetted another person who administered the fatal poison. State v. Moran, 15 Or 262, 275, 14 P 419 (1887). Since then, this court consistently has adhered to that proposition. See State v. Fraser, 105 Or 589, 594-95, 209 P 467 (1922); State v. Branton, 33 Or 533, 540-42, 56 P 267 (1899).
With that background in mind, we turn to Article I, section 11. As initially adopted in 1857, Article I, section 11, did not expressly address jury unanimity or jury concurrence.
Nothing in the context that preceded the enactment of the 1934 amendment to Article I, section 11, suggests any
state constitutional
The same is true for the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified by three-fourths of the states in 1868. To be sure, defendant argues that the common law that preceded the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment distinguished between principals and accessories before the fact. The difficulty, however, with defendant‘s argument is that the word “causes” in
We summarize our conclusions briefly. The requirement recognized in Boots and reaffirmed in Pipkin that at least 10 jurors must agree on each legislatively defined
element of a crime means that 10 jurors ordinarily must agree whether a defendant committed a crime him or herself or, alternatively, whether the defendant aided and abetted another person‘s commission of that crime. Even though the trial court should have given defendant‘s requested instruction to that effect, the error was harmless because, on the facts in this case, the factual findings necessary to find defendant liable on one theory either subsumed or were the same as the factual findings on the other theory. Finally, the legislative determination that causation in
The Court of Appeals decision and the judgment of the circuit court are affirmed.
Notes
350 Or at 582.“[
ORS 161.155(2)(b) ] requires a specific intent: the intent to promote or facilitate the commission of the crime committed by another. The statute also has a conduct element: with that requisite intent, the person must assist, agree to assist, or attempt to assist in either the planning or commission of the crime committed by another.”
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: “[N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”“[I]n the circuit court ten members of the jury may render a verdict of guilty or not guilty, save and except a verdict of guilty of first degree murder, which shall be found only by a unanimous verdict.”
Bishop, Criminal Law § 456.“And now an indictment against a man as principal of the first degree is sustained by proof of his being principal of the second degree; and, on the contrary, an indictment against him as principal of the second degree is supported by proof that he is principal of the first degree.”
