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State v. Gianakos5/23/2002
nce of the prime witness to the crime, given the strong policy supporting the privilege embodied in the common law and statute, we choose not to graft such an exception on to the privilege at this time. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court erred as a matter of law in its ruling that the alleged joint criminal activity of appellant and Jamie justified an exception to the marital privilege.
II.
In light of our ruling that the trial court erred in failing to preclude Jamie's testimony over appellant's objection, we consider whether that error was prejudicial. In making such a determination we apply a harmless error analysis. See State v. Juarez, 572 N.W.2d 286, 291 (Minn. 1997). If the verdict rendered was "surely unattributable" to the error, it is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and the conviction may stand. State v. Keeton, 589 N.W.2d 85, 91 (Minn. 1998); Juarez, 572 N.W.2d at 292. We conclude that admission of Jamie's testimony was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
A review of the record reveals that the majority of the testimony regarding the events of May 1, 1997, came from Jamie. Directly through her own testimony and indirectly through the testimony of her fellow inmate and confidant, Jamie provided virtually all the details of the murder, including the purchase of the wine coolers and how appellant added the potentially lethal sleeping pills, the manner in which they lured Camp to the murder site, the well thought-out events of the car ride, the shots fired by appellant, the dragging of Camp's body to the back of the farmhouse, and the dumping of Camp's purse along the road later that evening. Furthermore, Jamie provided information regarding appellant's shotgun purchase, verified by authorities through store records. In short, it was Jamie's statements that tied together many of the facts provided by the experts and investigators and linked them to appellant. We therefore cannot conclude that the wrongful admission of Jamie's testimony was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and that the verdict rendered was surely unattributable to that error. Accordingly, we reverse the conviction and remand for a new trial.
We remand for a new trial consistent with our ruling, and because we do so, we do not address appellant's final argument that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to corroborate the testimony of Jamie, his alleged accomplice, and that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury sua sponte that a conviction cannot rest on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.
Reversed and remanded.
DISSENT
LANCASTER, Justice (dissenting).
When a married person commits a crime with his or her spouse and is willing to testify about committing the crime, may the defendant on trial silence that testimony by invoking the privilege against adverse spousal testimony? That important question is rightfully this court's to answer. In my view the court has shirked its responsibility in the name of a comity that is, in this instance, misplaced. For that reason I respectfully dissent.
The Minnesota Constitution separates the government into three distinct branches:
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. Minn. Const. art III, § 1.
The legislative power includes "the power to declare what acts are criminal and to establish the punishment for those acts as part o
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