McKenzie v. State
| Decision Date | 23 December 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. A14–1395.,A14–1395. |
| Citation | 872 N.W.2d 865 |
| Parties | Rene Julian McKENZIE, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Rene Julian McKenzie, Rush City, MN, pro se.
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Jean Burdorf, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.
Considered and decided by the court without oral argument.
This case comes to us on appeal from the denial of Rene Julian McKenzie's petition for postconviction relief. McKenzie filed a petition for postconviction relief based on two third-party affidavits, alleging that a witness had recanted his trial testimony. The postconviction court granted an evidentiary hearing to determine the credibility of the alleged recantation. At the hearing, the assistant county attorney informed the trial witness who allegedly recanted of the consequences should he testify falsely. The trial witness and the affiants invoked their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and the postconviction court refused to grant use immunity to appellant's witnesses. Following the hearing, the postconviction court denied the petition, explaining that it was not well satisfied that the trial witness's testimony was false. McKenzie appeals, arguing the State violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process by substantially interfering with the decisions of his witnesses about whether to testify at the postconviction hearing. He also argues that the postconviction court erred by not granting use immunity to his witnesses and by finding that he presented insufficient evidence to warrant a new trial. Because McKenzie failed to prove that the State substantially interfered with the witnesses' decisions about whether to testify, and because the postconviction court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to grant use immunity or by denying the postconviction petition, we affirm.
Following a jury trial, McKenzie was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Perry Pajunen.1 Pajunen was shot four times while visiting the home McKenzie shared with his friend and died as a result of the shooting. At trial, McKenzie argued that his friend was the one who shot Pajunen, and that he assisted in disposing of the body because his own life was threatened. A witness for the State, Wendell Martin (Martin Sr.), testified that McKenzie had confessed to the killing while the two of them shared a holding cell. The jury found McKenzie guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and the district court convicted McKenzie and sentenced him to life in prison. We affirmed the conviction. State v. McKenzie, 511 N.W.2d 14, 17 (Minn.1994). McKenzie filed his first petition for postconviction relief in 2007, and we held that those claims were procedurally barred under State v. Knaffla, 309 Minn. 246, 243 N.W.2d 737 (1976). McKenzie v. State, 754 N.W.2d 366, 370 (Minn.2008).
McKenzie filed his current petition for postconviction relief on November 26, 2012, alleging that Martin Sr. provided false testimony at McKenzie's murder trial. McKenzie produced affidavits of LaMonte Martin (Martin Jr.) and Heidi Mastin, Martin Sr.'s son and ex-wife, respectively, in which each asserted that Martin Sr. told them that he had lied at McKenzie's trial. The postconviction court granted an evidentiary hearing to assess the credibility of Mastin, Martin Jr., and Martin Sr.
Prior to the hearing, however, Martin Jr. and Mastin pleaded guilty to bribery and witness tampering in relation to Martin Jr.'s own petition for postconviction relief. Mastin's plea agreement contained a provision prohibiting her from testifying in McKenzie's postconviction matter, and on advice of counsel, she withdrew the affidavit she had provided McKenzie. During a conference prior to the evidentiary hearing on McKenzie's petition, the postconviction court declared this provision in Mastin's plea agreement unenforceable.
Martin Sr. failed to appear at the evidentiary hearing. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and he turned himself in the next morning. The assistant county attorney then met briefly with Martin Sr. At the meeting, Martin Sr. told the assistant county attorney that his trial testimony was the "absolute truth."
At the rescheduled evidentiary hearing, the assistant county attorney informed the court that he had a reasonable and substantial belief that if Martin Sr. "were to testify that he would potentially be providing false testimony." The assistant county attorney further explained that he had told Martin Sr.'s attorney that the State "would pursue charges consistent with that" belief if Martin Sr. were to testify falsely.
Based on the advice of counsel, Mastin, Martin Jr., and Martin Sr. all invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. McKenzie argued that the assistant county attorney acted improperly when he met with Martin Sr. without Martin Sr.'s appointed counsel present, and by threatening and intimidating McKenzie's witnesses. Because of this alleged misconduct, McKenzie asked the postconviction court to grant use immunity to the three witnesses under Minn.Stat. § 609.09, subd. 1 (2014), for their testimony.
The postconviction court found that Martin Sr. was not represented by counsel when he met with the assistant county attorney and refused to grant use immunity to McKenzie's witnesses. Based on the record before it, the court was not well satisfied that Martin Sr.'s trial testimony was false, and therefore it denied McKenzie's petition for postconviction relief. McKenzie appeals from the order denying relief.
We review the denial of postconviction relief for an abuse of discretion. Reed v. State, 793 N.W.2d 725, 729 (Minn.2010). In doing so, we review the postconviction court's legal conclusions de novo, Davis v. State, 784 N.W.2d 387, 390 (Minn.2010), and its findings of fact for clear error, Doppler v. State, 771 N.W.2d 867, 875 (Minn.2009).
We first consider McKenzie's contention that his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was violated because the State substantially interfered with his witnesses' decisions about whether to testify at the postconviction hearing.2 Although we have considered claims that a government actor interfered with a defense witness before or during a criminal trial, see, e.g., State v. Graham, 764 N.W.2d 340, 348–50 (Minn.2009), we have never considered a claim that a government actor interfered with a witness before or during a postconviction evidentiary hearing.3
In this case, we need not decide the exact form of assistance that due process requires in a postconviction proceeding. Even assuming McKenzie's rights are coextensive with those of a criminal defendant at trial, he is not entitled to any relief because he failed to prove that the State substantially interfered with the decisions made by his witnesses about whether to testify at the postconviction hearing.
Under the test that would be applied in the context of a criminal defendant at trial, the defendant must prove that (1) a government actor interfered with a defense witness's decision to testify; (2) the interference was substantial; and (3) the defendant was prejudiced by the conduct. Colbert v. State, 870 N.W.2d 616, 625 (Minn.2015) ; Graham, 764 N.W.2d at 349 . We apply this test to the decisions Mastin and Martin Sr. made about whether to testify at the postconviction hearing.4
As to Heidi Mastin, McKenzie asserts that the State improperly coerced her into a plea agreement in a collateral matter that restricted her from testifying on behalf of McKenzie. Mastin did enter a plea agreement with the State that purported to prevent her from providing testimony in McKenzie's case, but the postconviction court declared this provision unenforceable during a conference prior to the evidentiary hearing. The plea provision therefore had been deemed unenforceable when Mastin asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege at the evidentiary hearing. Mastin could have resubmitted the affidavit that she had previously withdrawn or could have testified consistent with her statement. Instead, and on advice of counsel, she invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege and freely chose not to testify. Based on our review of the record, we conclude that the State did not substantially interfere with Mastin's decision about whether to testify at the postconviction hearing.
McKenzie also argues that the assistant county attorney substantially interfered with Martin Sr.'s decision to testify at the postconviction hearing by (1) interviewing Martin Sr. either shortly before or after he was appointed counsel, and (2) threatening Martin Sr. with a perjury prosecution should he testify falsely.
McKenzie contends that because the assistant county attorney interviewed Martin Sr. without the presence of counsel to represent Martin Sr., the assistant county attorney's behavior amounts to improper interference. For McKenzie's argument to have merit, the assistant county attorney must have interviewed Martin Sr. outside the presence of counsel after the postconviction court had appointed counsel to represent Martin Sr.5 This fact was disputed below. The postconviction court resolved this dispute in the State's favor, finding that Martin Sr. was not represented by counsel at the time of the interview. If we affirm this finding of fact, we need not reach the question of whether an interview conducted outside the presence of counsel constitutes improper interference for purposes of the due process test. We therefore begin our analysis by reviewing the postconviction court's finding of fact.
We review...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Sanchez v. State
...omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). We review findings of fact for clear error and issues of law de novo. McKenzie v. State , 872 N.W.2d 865, 870 (Minn.2015).Although Sanchez alternatively claims that his plea counsel was ineffective and that he had a right to withdraw his guilty p......
-
Caldwell v. State
...In doing so, we review the postconviction court's legal conclusions de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. McKenzie v. State, 872 N.W.2d 865, 870 (Minn.2015).Turning to Caldwell's arguments, we first address whether the postconviction court or the prosecutor substantially interfe......
-
In re A.D.
...when the previously unaddressed issue involves a question of law and the parties had an opportunity to brief the issue. McKenzie v. State, 872 N.W.2d 865, 872 (Minn.2015). Here, both parties addressed the endangerment ground for dismissal at the expulsion hearing before the Board, and the B......
-
Campbell v. State
...we have "never held" that hearsay evidence is sufficient to warrant a new trial under the first prong of Larrison . McKenzie v. State , 872 N.W.2d 865, 875 (Minn. 2015).Based on this analysis, we hold that the postconviction court properly determined that Campbell did not satisfy the first ......