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State v. Egelhoff7/6/1995
t by the State.
Section 45-2-203, MCA, as amended in 1987, provides:
45-2-203. Responsibility — intoxicated condition. A person who is in an intoxicated condition is criminally responsible for his conduct and an intoxicated condition is not a defense to any offense and may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense unless the defendant proves that he did not know that it was an intoxicating substance when he consumed, smoked, sniffed, injected, or otherwise ingested the substance causing the condition. (Emphasis supplied.)
In 1985, § 45-2-203, MCA, provided:
45-2-203. Responsibility — intoxicated or drugged condition. A person who is in an intoxicated or drugged condition is criminally responsible for conduct unless such condition is involuntarily produced and deprives him of his capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. An intoxicated or drugged condition may be taken into consideration in determination of the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense. (Emphasis supplied.)
Egelhoff does not contend that he has the right to the affirmative defense of voluntary intoxication. He challenges only the exclusion of evidence from the jury's deliberations for purposes of determining mental state (the 1987 amendment). Egelhoff contends that Instruction No. 11, containing the statutory language from § 45-2-203, MCA, removed evidence of alcohol intoxication from the jury's consideration in determining whether he acted "knowingly" or "purposely" and relieved the prosecution of its burden to prove the required mental state for deliberate homicide, which is constitutionally impermissible.
The State contends that Egelhoff was not prejudiced because he was allowed to use the evidence of intoxication in order to explain his inability to remember the events of the evening as being the result of an alcohol-induced "blackout" and also as evidence of his lack of physical coordination which would have made it impossible for him to have driven Christianson's station wagon the night of the homicides. The State also argues that Egelhoff was not deprived of due process because the court also instructed the jury that the State had the burden of proving all elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
It is well established that in order to afford a defendant due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, the State must prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. See In Re Winship (1970), 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1072, 25 L.Ed.2d 368, 375. In addition, Sandstrom v. Montana (1979), 442 U.S. 510, 524, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 2459, 61 L.Ed.2d 39, 51, held that an instruction which shifted the burden of proof on the element of mental state to the defendant is unconstitutional. In Sandstrom, the burden shifting resulted from instructing the jury that " he law presumes that a person intends the ordinary consequences of his voluntary acts." The Sandstrom presumption was a rebuttable presumption.
Egelhoff argues that in Sandstrom the defendant was at least allowed the opportunity to rebut the presumption. He contends he is denied that opportunity because the instruction prohibits consideration of his intoxication in determining whether he acted knowingly and purposely. Egelhoff also contends that Morissette v. United States (1952), 342 U.S. 246, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288, supports his arguments because the United States Supreme Court there condemned a process by which a defendant could be convicted of cri
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