State v. StreiffState v. Streiff
- Reporters:
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- Before:
- Hanson
Lead Opinion
OPINION
HANSON, Justice.Respondent Kathryn L. Streiff (Streiff) was charged with two felonies, criminal vehicular operation resulting in substantial
On January 5, 2002, Streiff and her husband James Streiff (James) were involved in a one-car rollover accident in Olmsted County. Witnesses reported that Streiff was on the driver’s side of the vehicle, or was getting out of the driver’s side, when they arrived at the scene. Witnesses found James injured and lying in a ditch near the vehicle. Witnesses reported that Streiff had wandered off from the accident scene and was found among the trees a short distance away. A preliminary breath test of Streiff taken at the scene registered a blood alcohol content of 0.162. Streiff then submitted to a blood test that indicated a blood alcohol content of 0.17.
A state trooper took a statement from James two days after the accident. James stated that he could not remember the accident, but remembered that he and his wife had been drinking prior to the accident. The trooper obtained a release for James’s medical records. Based on the release, James’s treating physician reported that James sustained substantial bodily harm as a result of the accident. When James discovered that his medical records had been released to the county attorney’s office and were being used to prosecute his wife, he sent letters to the Minnesota State Patrol revoking all releases of medical information; the hospital revoking the medical information release; and the Assistant Dakota County Attorney, stating his opposition to the prosecution of his wife and his concern that his wife would lose her job if convicted of a felony.
After being charged with the two felonies, Streiff filed a motion under
A majority of the court of appeals affirmed the district court, holding that the
Streiff does not argue that the prosecution abused its discretion in bringing the felony charges. Neither does Streiff argue that she was selectively prosecuted for some discriminatory reason. Instead, she essentially argues that the potential loss of her employment, coupled with the objection by the victim to the felony prosecution, amount to manifest injustice. The state argues that the factors do not rise to the level of manifest injustice and that the district court’s acceptance of a plea to lesser charges violates the separation of powers provision of the Minnesota Constitution.
A. Separation of Powers1
A review of the history of
In 1980, we decided State v. Carriere, 290 N.W.2d 618, 619 (Minn.1980), which addressed the following certified question from the district court: “Under Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure 15.07, can the court accept a plea to an offense of lesser degree over the voiced opposition of the county attorney?” We said:
If the second sentence ofRule 15.07 were interpreted as leaving to the trial court’s complete discretion the decision whether to accept a guilty plea opposed by the prosecutor, the [separation of powers] constitutional argument the prosecutor makes in this case would have merit. We believe, however, that conditions can be placed on the trial court’s acceptance of such a plea which will eliminate the danger of judicial intrusion into an area reserved for prose-cutorial discretion.
Id. To satisfy separation of powers concerns, Carriere conditioned the district court’s acceptance of the defendant’s motion on whether the prosecutor can “demonstrate to the trial court that there is a reasonable likelihood the state can withstand a motion to dismiss the charge at the close of the state’s case in chief.” Id. We concluded that if the prosecutor can satisfy this condition, the district court “should refuse to accept the tendered guilty plea.” Id. at 621.
In 1983,
B. Case Laio Under
In State v. Stafford, 340 N.W.2d 669, 670 (Minn.1983), we held that it was error for the district court to accept a plea to a lesser offense where the prosecutor’s offer of proof demonstrated a reasonable likelihood that the state could withstand a motion to dismiss on the charged offense. We noted that the amended rule also allowed the acceptance of a plea based on a finding of “manifest injustice,” but, without further discussion, we simply concluded that it was not a manifest injustice to charge a defendant with felony assault in the third degree for striking the victim, knocking her unconscious, and breaking her nose. 340 N.W.2d at 671 n. 2. This has been our only decision under the amended version of
In the absence of any decisions by this court on the meaning of “manifest injustice” under
The court of appeals has applied this interpretation of manifest injustice in eight cases. In all cases except Neddermeyer, where there was evidence sufficient to enforce a plea agreement, the court has held that the circumstances were insufficient to constitute a “manifest injustice.” These circumstances included: (1) the charged crime was defendant’s first offense and defendant had made numerous trips from Chicago to the Twin Cities to resolve the charges, State v. Gilmartin, 550 N.W.2d 294, 297 (Minn.App.1996); (2) the state withdrew its plea offer on the first day of trial, after the court ruled certain evidence admissible, State v. Hoffa, 511 N.W.2d 462, 463 (Minn.App.1994); (3) the state required the defendant to stand trial on the offense charged even though the plea would have resulted in the same punishment as a lesser offense, Favre, 428 N.W.2d at 830 (Minn.App.1988); (4) the district court believed that the statute was unconstitutionally vague and discriminato-rily applied, State v. McAllister, 399 N.W.2d 685, 688-690 (Minn.App.1987); (5) the district court accepted the defendant’s statement that he had paid the fine for which his license had been suspended before being stopped for a driving after sus
C. Case Law in Related Areas
The parties support their respective interpretations of
1. Stay of Adjudication
Streiff relies on two cases involving stays of adjudication to support her view that the district court had the authority to accept her plea to the lesser charges, State v. Krotzer, 548 N.W.2d 252 (Minn.1996) and State v. Olson, 325 N.W.2d 13 (Minn.1982). Preliminarily, we note that because the act of the court in accepting a plea over the objection of the prosecutor is more intrusive of the prosecutor’s charging function than ordering a stay of adjudication, the restriction on the court’s authority to accept a plea to a lesser charge would logically be greater than that on the court’s authority to order a stay of adjudication.
In Krotzer, this court held that the district court had the inherent power to stay adjudication where special circumstances so indicate. 548 N.W.2d at 255. Krotzer was a 19-year-old boy who was charged with statutory rape for having consensual sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend. Id. at 253. Krotzer entered a guilty plea to the prosecutor’s charge but requested the court to stay adjudication of his crime. The Department of Corrections, remarking on the lack of aggression in Krotzer’s history and the inappropriateness of requiring him to register as a sex offender, recommended that he be placed on probation under a stay of adjudication. The victim’s mother agreed. The district court postponed acceptance of the guilty plea and, over the objection of the prosecutor, stayed adjudication and placed Krotzer on probation for 60 months. This court held that the district court had inherent power to stay the adjudication in the “furtherance of justice.” Id. at 254-55.
In Olson, after the defendant had pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife with a dangerous weapon, the district court stayed the 54-month prison sentence for 10 years. 325 N.W.2d at 16. The district court described “strong mitigating factors,” including the wife’s belief that the defendant was a “good man” and no danger to her, the wife was not seriously hurt (although struck on the arm by a bullet), and the probable loss of the family home and the inability of the children to continue
But Krotzer and Olson are not particularly helpful to Streiff because in each case, the district court’s action took place during the sentencing stage and did not involve a direct intrusion on the charging or plea-bargaining functions of the prosecution. In fact, Krotzer recognized that the court’s authority to interfere with the charging function of a prosecutor is much less than its authority in sentencing, stating:
Under established separation of power rules, absent evidence of selective or discriminatory prosecutorial intent, or an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the judiciary is powerless to interfere with the prosecutor’s charging authority.
548 N.W.2d at 254 (citations omitted). Moreover, Streiff fails to recognize that this court restricted the holding in Krotzer when it later confirmed that the district court may stay adjudication only where “special circumstances” are present. State v. Foss, 556 N.W.2d 540 (Minn.1996). This court emphasized in Foss that a stay of adjudication should only be used “sparingly ” and only for “the purpose of avoiding an injustice resulting from the prosecutor’s clear abuse of discretion in the exercise of the charging function.” Id. at 541 (emphasis in original). Thus, Foss is even less favorable for Streiff because it recognizes that separation of powers affects not only the authority of the court to directly interfere with the charging function, but also limits the court’s authority to indirectly interfere through sentencing.
Even more damaging to Streiffs argument is the decision of this court that followed Foss. In State v. Twiss, 570 N.W.2d 487 (Minn.1997), this court reversed the district court’s stay of adjudication of the defendant’s guilty plea, which had been granted over the objection of the prosecutor based on the possibility that the defendant might lose her job if convicted of a gross misdemeanor. We said that the possible loss of a job is not a “special circumstance” under Foss. “Rather, it is the sort of consequence that commonly attends a conviction of a serious offense, such as the offense in this case.” Id.4
Thus, Streiffs reliance on the stay of adjudication analogy does not support her argument. If the factors relied upon to grant Streiffs
2. Dismissal under
Streiff argues that because the court had the power to dismiss the charges on its own motion under
But this argument merely begs the question of what the scope of the authority of the court really is under
Second, to the extent that it was argued that such a dismissal might preclude further charges, the statute would raise the same separation of powers issues that were present in Carriere and led the court to imply restrictions on the authority of the court to interfere with the prosecutor’s charging function.
S. Withdrawal of a Guilty Plea
The state relies in part on the analogy to the high standard for “manifest injustice” established by this court, under
L Sentencing Departures
The state relies in part on the analogy to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines to argue that factors that do not justify a downward departure under the guidelines should not be considered sufficient to supply manifest injustice under
Reversed and remanded.
Notes
. Article 3, § 1 of the Minnesota Constitution provides: “The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments: legislative, executive and judicial. No person or persons belonging to or constituting one of these departments shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others except in the instances expressly provided in this Constitution.”
. The files of the court‘s criminal rules committee do not reflect any discussion of why the “manifest injustice” language was included. The files do contain comments submitted by the state attorney general and several county attorneys, objecting to the manifest injustice language and noting the possible separation of powers issues that could arise under it.
. The first part of the test was apparently based on State v. Neddermeyer, No. C0-87-1415, 1987 WL 26901, at *2 (Minn.App. Dec.15, 1987) (unpublished opinion), where the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the defendant to plead to a lesser offense when the court found that a plea bargain had been offered and accepted prior to the hearing. The second part of the test was drawn from Wayte v. U.S., 470 U.S. 598, 608, 105 S.Ct. 1524, 84 L.Ed.2d 547 (1985), where the Court addresses issues of selective prosecution.
. In State v. Leming, 617 N.W.2d 587 (Minn.App.2000), the court of appeals addressed several other factors relied upon by the district court in ordering a stay of adjudication and found them all to fall short of the “special circumstances” test. Similar to the factors relied upon by the district court here, these included (1) the possibility of the loss of employment; (2) the inability of the defendant to pay restitution if she lost her job; (3) the victim’s agreement to the stay; (4) the defendant’s lack of a criminal record; and (5) the defendant’s remorse. Id. at 589-90.
Concurrence Opinion
(concurring).
It is easy to do justice, but it is much harder to do right.
Sir Robert Morton
Barrister and M.P.
“The Winslow Boy”1
I join in the court’s opinion. Under the laws of the State of Minnesota, our rules, and the separation of powers doctrine, it is not a “manifest injustice” for the state to have charged Kathryn Lorraine Streiff with a felony for her alleged misconduct. Nevertheless, I write separately to add some comments on the concepts of justice, injustice, and punishment. This case demonstrates how difficult it is to establish the line separating the executive branch’s power to charge a criminal offense from the judiciary’s authority to supercede that power. Moreover, our holding illustrates that the executive branch’s power to charge a criminal offense is awesome and sometimes may be difficult to exercise in a just manner. The facts of this case and our holding provide the opportunity for me to explore the issue of whether it is sufficient for the state to see that “justice shall be done”2 or whether the state also has an additional obligation to ascertain that the right thing is done.
I begin by addressing our use of the term “manifest” to modify the word “injustice” in
If everyone’s definition of injustice was uniform, there would be no need to modify’ its use in
Don’t be foolish, boy. We practice law, not “justice.” There is no such thing as objective “justice,” which is a subjective matter. A man might feel justified in stealing a loaf of bread to fill his belly; the baker might think it most just for the thiefs hand to be chopped off, as in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. The image of justice changes with the beholder’s viewpoint, prejudice or social affiliation. But for society to function, the set of rules agreed on by the body politic must be observed-the law must be carried out.
Lira Baker, The Justice From Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of Oliver Wendell Holmes 608 (Harper Collins 1991) (emphasis added.) More recently and closer to home, former Anoka County Attorney Robert W. Johnson made the following observation about justice: “Now justice, you can play around with that word a lot. What’s justice to one person is not justice to another person.”5
Because the definition of injustice can vary based on the beholder’s viewpoint, the law requires a term that is more precise. This is especially true in the case of
As used in
With the foregoing understanding of
When a person disobeys the law, she becomes a wrongdoer who may receive an unjust double benefit. Not only does she benefit from others obeying the law, but she also may receive the physical, psychic, and/or economic benefits derived from her criminal conduct. Punishment as a consequence of misconduct is necessary for a civil society to maintain and restore its moral equilibrium. Through punishment,
This obvious conclusion brings me to my next question, which has a less obvious answer. What role, if any, do mercy and compassion play when ascertaining the just punishment for a particular crime? Some people exclusively emphasize retribution as the basis for punishment and argue that in a just system, there is little room for the sentimentality associated with mercy and compassion. They argue that, while mercy is a moral virtue, there is a danger that it can and will be overvalued in the justice system. They assert that anger and retribution toward the wrongdoer are natural, while mercy is an improper response to the wrongdoer’s insulting message to society. This approach can manifest itself when prosecutors, without exception, follow a policy of always charging and pursuing the most serious, readily provable offense or offenses supported by the facts of a case. Judges frequently see this attitude expressed in court, especially when the time comes to exercise sentencing authority. On a daily basis, judges face the question whether it is inappropriate, even presumptive, for them to ignore or condemn attitudes that focus exclusively on anger and retribution. Should these attitudes trump any thought of mercy? Should a judge be permitted to nurture a heightened awareness that such attitudes can blind the court to circumstances that make the wrongdoer’s actions more pathetic than evil?
It is my contention that a legal system must provide room for the qualities of mercy and compassion as elements in any equation that seeks justice as its end result. Moreover, these qualities should exist at all stages of the system — with the police, prosecutors, and the courts. Without mercy and compassion, a legal system cannot be truly just. This view is neither novel nor foreign to our justice system. For example, 80 years ago, Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote “Perhaps we shall even find at times that when talking about justice, the quality we have in mind is charity.”6
But when are mercy and compassion appropriate? This question can present a dilemma for judges, and I assume the same is true for the police and prosecutors. A dilemma exists because justice, mercy, and compassion are so different. Mercy and compassion are gifts that can be bestowed. They are not rights to which a wrongdoer is entitled. Shakespeare said it well in the Merchant of Venice when he wrote:
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the plain beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.7
Is it wise for us to have a system that permits mercy to season justice? Should the people grant to government officials the power to act mercifully? Does the general welfare and common good — the commonweal — require that mercy be part of the justice system? I submit that we want a system that allows for both justice and mercy; otherwise, we become a society that is rigid, unduly strict, unbending, and myopic in its pursuit of justice. Justice must always be our primary goal, but where circumstances demand, true justice requires that we have the discretion to act in a merciful manner. Having the power to act mercifully enables a person to do the right thing. Thus, a civil society must make room for mercy, must want it, must ask for it, and indeed in some cases must demand it.
So where does the foregoing discussion take me with respect to the case at hand? As our court’s opinion points out, under Minnesota law, it was not a manifest injustice for the state to charge Marilyn Streiff with a felony for her alleged misconduct. Manifest injustice does not exist here because the felony charge does not result in an obvious injustice that exceeds the bounds of what is a reasonable exercise of the state’s power to charge. Under our separation of powers doctrine, it was the district court, not the state, that overstepped its bounds.
Perhaps the district court acted as it did in an effort to do the right thing and, in doing so, season justice by bestowing mercy. As the court stated, (1) Streiff s husband, who was also the victim of her criminal conduct, did not want her to have a felony conviction; (2) Streiff s family would be unduly harmed by a felony conviction because she would lose her job; (3) public policy concerns of deterrence and punishment would be met by two gross misdemeanor convictions; (4) the offense was an unintended consequence of an intentional act; and (5) Streiff accepted full responsibility for her actions. The court may have acted as it did to prevent Mr. Streiff from being twice a victim, first by his wife and second by the justice system. Even if the court believed that it should do the right thing and act to prevent an injustice, it could not do so because the state’s action did not reach the limits of what we view to be a manifest injustice. Therefore, there is little doubt that under the law we are doing the right thing by reversing the district court’s decision.
Our conclusion that the state acted within its authority under the law still leaves a question that is not for us to answer — it is one upon which I can only ponder. Has the state not only sought to see that “justice shall be done,” but, when doing so, has it done the right thing? I have no doubt that the state believes it has acted in a manner consistent with its legal mandate and is doing justice. Whether it has done the right thing is another question. In “The Winslow Boy,” defense attorney and member of Parliament Sir Robert Morton successfully defended the Winslow boy against false charges at great sacrifice to the family’s status, health, and wealth. At the end of the movie, Sir Robert said, “Right has been done.” But then he added, “It is easy to do justice, but it is much
. “The Winslow Boy” (Sony Pictures Classics 1999).
. The United States Supreme Court has stated that a government lawyer
is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.
Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935) (emphasis added).
“The primary responsibility of prosecution is to see that justice is accomplished.” Nat‘l Dist. Attorneys Ass’n, National Prosecution Standards (2d ed.1991).
“The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.” ABA Standards for Criminal Justice, Prosecution Function and Defense Function, Standard 3-1.2 (3d ed.1993).
. Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modem Legal Usage 547 (2d ed.1995).
. Id.
. Robert W. Johnson, Attorney at Law and former Anoka County Attorney, “The Role of the County Attorney: Ministers of Justice,” 2002 Minnesota County Attorneys Annual Meeting, November 21, 2002.
. Fred R. Shapiro, The Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations 231 (Oxford University Press 1993).
. Elizabeth M. Knowles, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 688 (5th ed. Oxford University Press 1999).