Case Information
*1 #28705-r-DG
IN THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE
STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
* * * *
STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v. IRWIN SHARPFISH, Defendant and Appellee.
* * * *
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT PENNINGTON COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA * * * *
THE HONORABLE SCOTT BOGUE
Magistrate Judge
* * * *
MARTY J. JACKLEY
Attorney General
PAUL S. SWEDLUND
QUINCY R. KJERSTAD
Assistant Attorneys General
Pierre, South Dakota Attorneys for plaintiff
and appellant.
ELIZABETH REGALADO of
Pennington County Public
Defender’s Office
Rapid City, South Dakota Attorneys for defendant
and appellee. * * * *
CONSIDERED ON BRIEFS ON MARCH 25, 2019 OPINION FILED 08/14/19 *2 GILBERTSON, Chief Justice
[¶1.] Irwin Sharpfish was charged in magistrate court with driving under the influence of alcohol. He filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained from his encounter with law enforcement, which was denied by the magistrate court. He was convicted following a bench trial and appealed his conviction to the circuit court. The circuit court reversed Sharpfish’s conviction, ordered that his motion to suppress should be granted, and remanded the case. The State filed a petition for an intermediate appeal from the circuit court’s order. We granted the appeal, but dismissed it as untimely. Following our decision, the magistrate court ordered that Sharpfish’s motion to suppress should be granted in accordance with the circuit court’s order. The State filed a petition for an intermediate appeal from the magistrate court’s order, which we granted. We reverse.
Facts and Procedural History
[¶2.] On August 8, 2015, while on patrol in Rapid City, Officer Garrett Loen received a dispatch at approximately 1:45 a.m. regarding a report of an intoxicated driver. Officer Loen was advised that a Native American male, about six feet tall, 180 pounds, and wearing jeans and a t-shirt was driving a blue minivan northbound in the Baken Park parking lot towards the Corner Pantry gas station. Officer Loen was not told the reporting party’s identity or provided information regarding why the reporting party believed the driver to be intoxicated. Officer Loen was in the vicinity and proceeded directly to the Corner Pantry.
[¶3.] An L3 dashcam recording system on Officer Loen’s patrol car captured the event. The recording began as Officer Loen approached, but because of the *3 system’s location on the patrol car, it did not capture Officer Loen’s observations of the minivan before it stopped at the pump. Officer Loen witnessed the blue minivan driving through the parking lot and coming to a stop at a gas station рump. He did not witness any erratic driving or traffic violations.
[¶4.] The recording shows that Officer Loen pulled up behind the van roughly a car length away. The gas station pumps were brightly illuminated by artificial light. Officer Loen activated his amber warning lights, which he later testified he used to alert others to his presence during non-custodial stops. The van’s driver, Sharpfish, had turned off his engine. He had exited the minivan and appeared to be rummaging around for something inside the vehicle as Officer Loen stepped out of his patrol vehicle.
[¶5.] Officer Loen greeted Sharpfish in a conversational manner, and Sharpfish replied, “I’m doing good,” and stated that he was just getting gas. He also mentioned something unintelligible about his son having taken something. Officer Loen paused briefly just in front of his patrol vehicle and a few feet behind Sharpfish’s minivan to observe Sharpfish. He then approached Sharpfish, who swayed where he stood, slurred his speech, smelled of alcohol, and had bloodshot eyes. As Officer Loen came closer to Sharpfish to stand between him and the pump, Officer Loen informed Sharpfish that someone had called “him” in as an intoxicated driver and asked for his driver’s license. Sharpfish complied.
[¶6.] Officer Loen then asked Sharpfish if he had anything to drink that night. Sharpfish denied having anything to drink and initially refused Officer Loen’s request to undergo field sobriety tests. Sharpfish eventually agreed to *4 perform a horizontal gaze nystagmus test, but refused Officer Loen’s request to do more tests. As another officer arrived at the scene to assist, Officer Loen placed Sharpfish under arrest for driving under the influence. Officer Loen obtained a warrant for a blood draw, which revealed that Sharpfish’s blood alcohol content was 0.222%. Sharpfish was charged in magistrate court with driving under the influence of alcohol, and, in the alternative, driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or more. The State filed a part II information alleging that Sharpfish had a prior conviction in Nevada for driving under the influence of alcohol.
[¶7.] On April 5, 2016, Sharpfish moved to suppress the evidence obtained as the result of his encounter with Officer Loen. He contended that “he was not contacted and detained based on reasonable suspicion” and therefore the “stop” violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article VI of the South Dakota Constitution. An evidentiary hearing was held in magistrate court. Officer Loen testified and the State introduced a DVD of the encounter captured by the L3 dashcam. On July 25, 2016, the magistrate court denied the motion to suppress. It concluded that Sharpfish had not been seized until Officer Loen developed a reasonable suspicion of Sharpfish’s intoxication and confirmed the details of the dispatch.
[¶8.] The magistrate court held a bench trial on September 27, 2016. Officer Loen testified and the dashcam foоtage was introduced as evidence. The court found Sharpfish guilty of driving under the influence. Sharpfish admitted to the part II information on December 20, 2016, was sentenced to 180 days in jail, and *5 had his license revoked. The magistrate court entered a judgment of conviction and Sharpfish appealed to the circuit court.
[¶9.] The circuit court examined Sharpfish’s encounter with Officer Loen and determined that there had not been a consensual encounter that evolved into an investigatory stop, as the magistrate court had concluded. Rather, the circuit court found that Sharpfish had been seized from the outset because, under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would not have felt at liberty to terminate the encounter. The circuit court concluded this because Officer Loen was parked behind Sharpfish’s van; Officer Loen had activated his amber lights, which to a reasonable person would “signify an official police detention[;]” Sharpfish had been told “he” was the subject of an investigation; Officer Loen “positioned himself in such a way as to limit [Sharpfish’s] movement[;]” and Officer Loen was in full uniform and carried a service weapon. Furthermore, the court concluded that the conclusory tip had not provided Officer Loen with reasonable suspicion to justify the stop. On June 19, 2017, the court ordered that Sharpfish’s motion to suppress evidence should be granted, reversed his conviction, and remanded the case for further proceedings. On July 5, 2017, the State petitioned for an intermediate appeal under
SDCL 23A-32-5 and SDCL 23A-32-12, which we granted.
State v. Sharpfish
,
accordance with the circuit court’s June 19, 2017 decision and order.” The magistrate, therefore, granted Sharpfish’s motion to suppress. On August 30, the State again petitioned for an intermediate appeal. Following an order to show cause, we granted the State’s petition. The issues are:
1. Whether this Court has jurisdiction to hear the State’s appeal.
2. Whether Officer Loen seized Sharpfish within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
Analysis and Decision
1.
Whether this Court has jurisdiction to hear the State’s appeal.
“This Court has only such appellate jurisdiction as may be provided by
the [L]egislature. The right to appeal is statutory and therefore does not exist in
the absence of a statute permitting it.”
Wegner v. Siemers
,
SDCL 23A-32-5, which provides:
An appeal by a prosecuting attorney may be taken to the Supreme Court from:
(1) An order of a circuit court or a magistrate suppressing or excluding evidence or requiring the return of seized property in a criminal proceeding;
(2) An order of a circuit court or a magistrate sustaining a motion to dismiss a complaint on statutory grounds or otherwise.
An appeal under this section may not be taken after a defendant has been put in jeopardy and is not a matter of right but of sound judicial discretion. Appeals from such orders shall be taken in the same mannеr as intermediate appeals in subdivision § 15-26A-3(6). No appeal taken under this section shall delay any trial unless a stay be granted in the discretion of the Supreme Court.
(Emphasis added.) Sharpfish argues that we have no jurisdiction under the plain
language of SDCL 23A-32-5 for several reasons. He claims that he has been placed in jeopardy because there has been a bench trial in magistrate court, and “[t]he statute specifically states that once jeopardy attaches the section no longer applies.” Sharpfish also contends that the State’s appeal is still untimely, because the “magistrate order from August 20, 2018, did not reset the clock or provide the State with new grounds with which to file this appeal.” 1
1.
Sharpfish additionally argues that “the circuit court’s reversal does not
amount to a suppression order as contemplated by the statute.” The order
from which the State petitioned for the current appeаl was the magistrate’s
(continued . . .)
*8
In response, the State contends that the word “jeopardy” as used in the
statute merely “contemplates . . . the constitutional prohibition” against placing
defendants in double jeopardy following a judgment of acquittal. Here, it claims
there are no such concerns because Sharpfish has not been acquitted. The State
argues that at this point, the “appeal from the magistrate’s suppression order [is]
the same as if the magistrate had erroneously suppressed the evidence in the first
place.” Finally, the State points out that it “perfected its appeal on August
30, 2018, within the 10-day window provided by SDCL 23A-32-6.”
To establish the meaning of jeopardy in SDCL 23A-32-5, we must
construe “words and phrases in a statute [according to] their plain meaning and
effect. If the words and phrases in the statute have plain meaning and effect, the
court should simply declare their meaning and not resort to a statutory
construction.”
Wheeler v. Farmers Mut. Ins. Co. of Nebraska
,
________________________
(. . . continued)
suppression order, not the circuit court’s order reversing and remanding judgment.
[¶17.]
Jeopardy means “[t]he risk of conviction and punishment that a
criminal defendant faces at trial.”
Jeopardy
, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed.
2019). “Jeopardy attaches when the trial commences, and in a jury trial, that
occurs when the jury is impaneled and sworn.”
State v. Delfs
,
concerns in this case because Sharpfish’s conviction in magistrate court has been
reversed and he may be re-tried, such a proposition does not acknowledge the fact of
“continuing jeopardy.” Continuing jeopardy “reflects the reality that the criminal
proceedings against an accused have not run their full course.”
Bravo-Fernandez v.
United States
, ___ U.S. ___, ___,
relevant to the plain language of the statute. Sharpfish is still in a state of
“jeopardy”—the risk of conviction—that has been in place since his bench trial in
*10
magistrate court.
Serfass v. United States
,
32-12:
As to any intermediate order made before trial , as to which an appeal is not allowed as a matter of right, either the state or the defendant may be permitted to appeal to the Supreme Court, not as a matter of right, but of sound judicial discretion, such appeal to be allowed by the Supreme Court only when the court considers that the ends of justice will be served by the determination of the questions involved without awaiting the final determination of the action . . . .
(Emphasis added.) While SDCL 23A-32-5 specifically provides a right for the State to seek direct appeal from magistrate court to the Supreme Court for certain orders in a criminal proceeding, SDCL 23A-32-12 places no limitations on thе order coming from circuit court or magistrate court and such appeal may be sought by either party in a criminal case. According to SDCL 23A-32-12, the key determination is whether an order has been given before “trial.” Here, following the order of the circuit court, the magistrate entered an
order granting Sharpfish’s motion to suppress. In
State v. Koch
, we observed that a
magistrate court’s order suppressing evidence was not a “final” order because it “did
*11
not dispose of the case.”
[¶22.] While the special concurrence states that this result relies on reading
SDCL 23A-32-5 “in a vacuum,” special concurrence ¶ 42, we are bound by the words
used by the Legislature and not what we think they should have said. We have
noted that while inconsistencies resulting from the plain language of our statutes
may seem unreasonable, we still must defer to the words used by the Legislature.
State v. Stunkard
,
761 (S.D. 1978). Because the State’s right to appeal from criminal proceedings is purely statutory and the authority to expand that right rests solely with the Legislature, we should be cautious in interpreting the Legislature’s intentions beyond what it clearly expresses. 3
2. Whether Officer Loen seized Sharpfish within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. “We review the court’s grant or denial of a motion to suppress
involving an alleged violation of a constitutionally protected right under the de novo
standard of review.”
State v. Fierro
,
3. The special concurrence’s reliance on federal cases interpreting 18 U.S.C. § 3731 (2013)—the statute providing for appeal by the United States in a criminal case—is unconvincing. “Double jeopardy” is clearly contemplated by 18 U.S.C. § 3731, which provides in part that “no appeal shall lie where the double jeopardy clause of the United State Constitution prohibits further prosecution.” There is no similar reference to double jeopardy in SDCL 23A- 32-5. As noted, “jeopardy” and “double jeopardy” are legal terms of art with different meanings. One cannot be read to mean the other without an express indication to the contrary. Additionally, 18 U.S.C. § 3731 provides that “[t]he provisions of this section shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes.” There is no such liberal grant of interpretation in SDCL 23A- 32-5 and we are bound to its express terms and our prior precedent on statutory interpretation.
[¶24.] The State argues that the contact between Officer Loen and Sharpfish was initially consensual, rather than a seizure. It contends that “[n]o detention or seizure occurred here until after [Officer] Loen had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that Sharpfish was intoxicated.” In contrast, Sharpfish contends that “it is clear that the contact between Officer Loen and Sharpfish was a stop and seizure from the moment the officer got out of his patrol car.” “The Fourth Amendment protects a person from ‘unreasonable
searches and seizures.’”
State v. Stanage
,
informants. However, “[t]he requirement that an officer have reasonable suspicion
prior to a stop is not abrogated simply because a third-party informant is convinced
a crime occurred.”
Stanage
,
alleged wrongdoing,’ the officer must have some other reason to believe the
informant’s conclusion is correct.”
Id
. ¶ 11,
and color of Sharpfish’s vehicle, the direction he was driving, and a physical
description of Sharpfish. However, such innocuous details “do[] not show that the
tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity.”
Florida v. J.L.
,
[¶29.]
Yet, not all encounters between citizens and police officers constitute
Fourth Amendment seizures.
State v. Iversen
,
encounter is determined by the totality of the circumstances.
United States v.
Angulo-Guerrero
,
Some circumstances which inform our decision-making include: officers positioning themselves in a way to limit the person’s freedom of movement, . . . the presence of several officers, the display of weapons by officers, physical touching, the use of language or intonation indicating compliance is necessary, the officer’s retention of the person’s property, or an officer’s indication the person is the focus of a particular investigation.
Haar
,
officer effectuated an investigatory detention, rather than engaged in a consensual
encounter, are largely not present here.
Haar
,
gas station by a busy intersection in Rapid City. Sharpfish was already parked.
Officer Loen pulled up a car length behind Sharpfish’s van, but did not disrupt the
minivan’s egress from the parking lot. Officer Loen exited his vehicle and
approached on foot. Adopting a conversational tone and not raising his voice,
Officer Loen asked a question about how Sharpfish was doing, all the while keeping
a respectable distance and not preventing Sharpfish from going about his business
or restricting his ability to get back into his vehicle. Although dressed in full
uniform, carrying a service weapon, and driving a marked patrol vehicle, Officer
Loen made no other outward signs of authority or force. Also, while Officer Loen
activated his amber lights, at least one court has held that the use of amber
warning lights does not constitute a stop when other surrounding circumstances
indicate a seizure has not taken place, such as when, like here, an officer parks
behind a suspect’s vehicle and approaches on foot.
State v. Halfmann
, 518 N.W.2d
729, 730 (N.D. 1994) (“Halfmann argues a Fourth Amendment ‘stop’ occurred when
Officer King pulled up behind her car, activated his amber lights, and approached
her car by foot. Under these circumstances, we disagree.”). Furthermore, the use of
a spotlight in
Iversen
was not considered to be a circumstance that indicated a
seizure took place because, like here, the patrol vehicle’s emergency lights had not
been activated and the surrounding circumstances did not suggest a seizure. 2009
S.D. 48, ¶ 17,
[¶34.] Officer Loen testified at the evidentiary hearing that he almost immediately noticed clear signs of intoxication. Once Officer Loen began telling Sharpfish about the report he had received and indicating he was the subject of an investigation, enough time had passed for Officer Loen to develop a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity based on Sharpfish’s appearance and behavior. Therefore, Officer Loen developed a reasonable suspicion of intoxication after greeting Sharpfish, but before seizing him.
Conclusion
[¶35.] We have jurisdiction to hear this appeal. Furthermore, Officer Loen developed a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before seizing Sharpfish. Therefore, the magistrate court’s order suppressing evidence obtained from the stop is reversed.
[¶36.] KERN, Justice, and SEVERSON, Retired Justice, concur in result. [¶37.] JENSEN and SALTER, Justices, dissent.
KERN, Justice (concurring in result). I agree that this Court has appellate jurisdiction in this case. I also
join the analysis reversing the order of the magistrate court suppressing evidence. I
write specially because, in my view, only SDCL 23A-32-5 provides this Court with
appellate jurisdiction over an order of suppression entered in magistrate court.
It is well settled that “[t]his Court has only such appellate jurisdiction
as may be provided by the [L]egislature.”
Wegner v. Siemers
,
suppression, the Legislature “has provided a mechanism for appellate review” via
SDCL 23A-32-5.
State v. Koch
,
may be taken to the Supreme Court from: (1) An order of a circuit court or a
magistrate suppressing or excluding evidence[.]” The State’s appeal in this case is
from a suppression order of a magistrate entered upon remand by the circuit court.
Sharpfish, however, argues that no jurisdiction exists because he was placed in
jeopardy when the magistrate judge took evidence in the court trial, regardless of
the fact he appealed his guilty verdict and obtained a favorable decision reversing
the magistrate’s decision denying the motion to suppress. He highlights that SDCL
23A-32-5 precludes an appeal “after a defendant has been put in jeopardy[.]”
While it is undisputed that jeopardy attached when the magistrate
judge took evidence in Sharpfish’s trial, I disagree that the phrase “put in jeopardy”
reflects Legislative intent to prohibit an appeal to this Court from a magistrate’s
suppression order entered on remand from circuit court. It is fundamental to our
rules of statutory interpretation that we examine the statute as a whole to
determine Legislative intent, and in doing so, we must refrain from isolating any
particular phrase.
See State v. Johnsen
,
context to describe that “no man is to be brought into jeopardy of his life more than
once for the same offense.”
See United States v. Wilson
,
principles “to determine more precisely the boundaries of the Government’s appeal
rights in criminal cases.”
6,
[¶47.] Here, in contrast, we have jurisdiction to consider this appeal under SDCL 23A-32-5 because a successful appeal by the State would not offend jeopardy principles; it would result in an order reversing that decision and remanding for the magistrate judge to reinstate the original judgment of conviction. Although I believe jurisdiction exists under SDCL 23A-32-5, the various writings in this case warrant intervention by the Legislature to clarify its intent. Indeed, this Court was unable to reach a majority view on which statute if any affords appellate jurisdiction. Therefore, I would call on the Legislature to clarify that the phrase “put in jeopardy” in SDCL 23A-32-5 means, as other courts have concluded, to “put in risk of double jeopardy.” SEVERSON, Retired Justice, joins this concurrence in result.
SALTER, Justice (dissenting). I am unable to join the plurality viеw finding the existence of appellate
jurisdiction here because neither of the statutes under consideration authorizes this appeal. In the case of SDCL 23A-32-5, I believe the Chief Justice’s opinion correctly holds that appellate jurisdiction is foreclosed by its clear and unambiguous text. The text of SDCL 23A-32-12 is arguably more adaptable to appellate jurisdiction of *24 this suppression order, but our prior decisions have sharply limited our jurisdiction to consider appeals directly from magistrate courts. The State’s silence on SDCL 23A-32-12 as a proposed basis for jurisdiction and its untimely appeal in Sharpfish I further counsel against applying the statute here. I must, therefore, respectfully dissent. I agree with the Chief Justice’s opinion and Justice Kern’s special
writing insofar as they express the accepted view that our authority to hear and decide appeals is solely a function of legislative enactment—not expliсit authority from our Constitution. Indeed, our Constitution expressly defers the creation of appellate jurisdiction to the Legislature by stating simply that “[t]he Supreme Court shall have such appellate jurisdiction as may be provided by the Legislature[.]” S.D. Const. art. V, § 5. Perhaps as an acknowledgment of our inability to unilaterally create
our own jurisdiction, we have historically been circumspect when determining
whether appellate jurisdiction exists.
See, e.g.
,
State v. Stenstrom
,
Appellate Jurisdiction under SDCL 23A-32-5
[¶52.]
We apply traditional rules of statutory construction to determine
whether the Legislature has created appellate jurisdiction to review a particular
order or judgment.
Id.
(citing
Double Diamond
,
method for construing text and more a recognition of our constitutional role:
The intent of a statute is determined from what the legislature said, rather than what the cоurts think it should have said. We cannot add language that simply is not there. Nor can we rewrite the language of the statute as this is an action reserved for the Legislature.
In re Estate of Flaws
,
An appeal by a prosecuting attorney may be taken to the Supreme Court from:
(1) An order of a circuit court or a magistrate suppressing or excluding evidence or requiring the return of seized property in a criminal proceeding;
(2) An order of a circuit court or a magistrate sustaining a motion to dismiss a complaint on statutory grounds or otherwise.
An appeal under this section may not be taken after a defendant has been put in jeopardy and is not a matter of right but of sound judicial discretion. The statute envisions a narrow class of permissible appeals. Under its
terms, only certain enumerated orders in criminal cases are appealable by the prosecution and, even then, only if the defendant has not been “put in jeopardy.” The term “jeopardy” has great potential significance in the area of criminal law, but the legal definition is very much like its colloquial one. Jeopardy means simply the imminent risk of injury and, in a legal context, it means specifically the risk of a criminal conviction and the corresponding potential for punishment. See Jeopardy , Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019). The point at which the risk becomes acute and jeopardy attaches can
vary slightly with the type of criminal trial. For instance, in jury trials, jeopardy
attaches when the jury is empaneled and sworn.
State v. Catch The Bea
r, 352
N.W.2d 637, 638 (S.D. 1984). In court trials, a defendant is placed in jeopardy when
the first witness is sworn to testify.
Crist v. Bretz
,
[¶57.]
We have held the attachment of jeopardy ends the possibility of an
appeal under SDCL 23A-32-5.
See State v. Reath
,
sustain appellate jurisdiction. Jeopardy attached at Sharpfish’s court trial when the magistrate judge considered the parties’ stipulated facts offered as evidence by the State. Given the clear and unambiguous language of SDCL 23A-32-5 prohibiting an appeal “after a defendant has been put in jeopardy” and our previous holding in Reath , I am unable to conceive of a different result. I can understand Justice Kern’s inclination to look to 18 U.S.C. § 3731
for guidance, but its assistance to this case is ephemeral. Section 3731 authorizes federal prosecutors to appeal certain pretrial orders in criminal cases, including orders excluding evidence, as long as they were not made “after the defendant has *28 been put in jeopardy . . . .” Critically, however, this is where any similarity between § 3731 and SDCL 23A-32-5 ends. The full text of § 3731’s jeopardy limitation is contained in the statute’s
second paragraph and prohibits an appeal of an order made “after the defendant
has been put in jeopardy
and before the verdict or finding on an indictment or
information
[.]” (Emphasis added.) This limitation does not referenсe “double
jeopardy” and federal courts have generally held it to be temporal—not a
constitutional reference to the prohibition against double jeopardy.
See United
States v. Ceccolini
,
the United States Constitution prohibits further prosecution[,]” but that restriction is listed separately from the provision relating to interlocutory orders. The “double jeopardy” limitation is contained in the first paragraph оf § 3731, which authorizes Government appeals for certain orders that are often final and can have the effect of *29 ending the prosecution or nullifying its result, including the dismissal of an indictment and an order granting a new trial. 4 Regardless, though, the Chief Justice’s opinion and Justice Kern’s
special writing correctly conclude that Sharpfish does not face the prospect of an
unconstitutional successive prosecution. Indeed, the Chief Justice’s exposition of
the doctrine of continuing jeopardy aptly illustrates the reason why no risk of
double jeopardy exists—because Sharpfish remains in continuing jeopardy.
See
Justices of Boston Mun. Court v. Lydon
,
the “jeopardy” limitation regulating the time for appeal under SDCL 23A-32-5 with
4.
Although the United States Supreme Court has held that § 3731 was
designed to remove all statutory barriers to Government appeals and allow
them when they are constitutionally permissible, it did so in its principal
cases when considering the explicit “double jeopardy” limitation contained in
the first paragraph of § 3731—not the provision contained in the second
paragraph relating to interlocutory orders made after the defendant is put in
jeopardy.
See United States v. Wilson
,
the general constitutional prohibition against successive prosecutions. They are two perceptibly different concepts, and we cannot justify a failure to read the plain text of SDCL 23A-32-5’s temporal, pre-jeopardy limitation with the incongruent assurance that doing so does not violate double jeopardy. In this case, jeopardy has long since attached and continued without abatement, and because SDCL 23A-32- 5—unlike 18 U.S.C. § 3731—contains no terminal point for limiting the time restriction for appeals, the explicit text of SDCL 23A-32-5 prohibits an appeal. Appellate Jurisdiction under SDCL 23A-32-12
[¶64.] The provisions of SDCL 23A-32-12 permit discretionary appeals of intermediate or interlocutory orders entered “before trial . . . when the court considers that the ends of justice will be served[.]” Even if, as the Chief Justice suggests, the text of this statute might permit a direct appeal from magistrate court to this Court, this case is not well-suited to consider its applicability for several reasons. First, the State has not argued that SDCL 23A-32-12 is a potential
basis for appellate jurisdiction. Although we are, of course, free to examine the
limits of our jurisdiction, we have generally done so to determine the existence of
appellate jurisdiction when the рarties have overlooked the issue entirely.
See, e.g.
,
Estate of Putnam
,
[¶67.] Abruptly shifting the course of our decisional law by holding we now have appellate jurisdiction to consider direct appeals from magistrate court under SDCL 23A-32-12 creates unnecessary uncertainty. In my view, it would be far more preferable to wait to confront this issue until we have the benefit of the parties’ briefing in an appeal where the construction of SDCL 23A-32-12 and the impact of the Hoxeng line of cases is squarely presented. Finally, this case seems an unlikely appellate vehicle to forge a new
rule for direct appeals from magistrate court. The State had an opportunity to perfect a cognizable appeal from a circuit court order under SDCL 23A-32-12 in Sharpfish I , and simply failed to do so. For the reasons expressed in this writing, I would, therefore, simply
read SDCL 23A-32-5 as it is written, avoid the precipitous expansion of our *32 decisions that restrict direct appeals from magistrate court, and dismiss this appeal. JENSEN, Justice, joins this dissent.
