State v. Hazelwood

• Decision Date: 03 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. S-7602,S-7602
• Citation: 946 P.2d 875
• Parties: 138 Oil & Gas Rep. 245 STATE of Alaska, Petitioner, v. Joseph J. HAZELWOOD, Respondent.
• Court: Alaska Supreme Court

Page 875

946 P.2d 875

138 Oil & Gas Rep. 245

STATE of Alaska, Petitioner, v. Joseph J. HAZELWOOD, Respondent.

No. S-7602.

Supreme Court of Alaska.

Oct. 3, 1997.

Eric A. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals, Anchorage, Bruce M. Botelho, Attorney General, Juneau, for Petitioner.

James H. McComas, Friedman, Rubin and White, Anchorage, and Richard H. Friedman, Friedman, Rubin and White, Anchorage, for Respondent.

Before COMPTON, C.J., and RABINOWITZ and MATTHEWS, JJ.

OPINION

RABINOWITZ, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

In this petition we are called upon to decide whether due process under Alaska's Constitution requires that a criminal offense be predicated on proof of more than just simple civil negligence.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Respondent's conviction stems from the Exxon Valdez incident. On March 24, 1989, Captain Joseph Hazelwood ran his ship aground off Bligh Reef and reported he was "evidently leaking some oil." Eventually, eleven million gallons poured into Prince William Sound. A jury subsequently convicted Hazelwood of negligent discharge of oil.

The Court of Appeals reversed Hazelwood's conviction on the basis that some of the evidence admitted at trial had been derived from Hazelwood's immunized oil spill report. The court held that these statements could not have been admitted even if they would inevitably have been discovered from an independent source. Hazelwood v. State, 836 P.2d 943 (Alaska App.1992). This Court reversed, holding that the inevitable discovery doctrine does apply to the immunity created by 33 U.S.C. § 1321(b)(5) for oil spill reports. State v. Hazelwood, 866 P.2d 827, 834 (Alaska 1993).

On remand, the Court of Appeals again reversed Hazelwood's conviction. This time it held that Hazelwood should have been tried under a criminal negligence theory rather than the civil negligence standard of culpability. The court ruled that criminal convictions may be predicated on findings of simple or ordinary negligence only when the offense involves a heavily regulated commercial activity. Hazelwood v. State, 912 P.2d 1266, 1279 (Alaska App.1996). Since the application of former AS 46.03.790 is not restricted to heavily regulated industries, the Court of Appeals concluded that Hazelwood's conviction under a civil negligence standard was a denial of due process. We granted the state's petition for hearing and now reverse.

III. DISCUSSION

The difference between criminal and civil negligence although not major is distinct. Under both standards, a person acts "negligently" when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a particular result will occur.

The two tests part ways in their descriptions of the relevant unobserved risk. Under ordinary negligence, "the risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation." Id. at 1278. Criminal negligence requires a greater risk. This standard is met only when the risk is

of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation. Criminal negligence is something more than the slight degree of negligence necessary to support a civil action for damages and is negligence of a degree so gross as to be deserving of punishment.

Id. at 1278-79 n. 16 (emphasis added).

In essence, then, the criminal negligence standard requires the jury to find negligence so gross as to merit not just damages but also punishment. It does not spill over into recklessness; there is still no requirement that the defendant actually be aware of the risk of harm. However, criminal negligence does require a more culpable mental state than simple, ordinary negligence. ¹

The statute under which Hazelwood was convicted provides in relevant part:

A person may not discharge, cause to be discharged, or permit the discharge of petroleum ... into, or upon the waters or land of the state except in quantities, and at times and locations or under circumstances and conditions as the department may by regulation permit....

Former AS 46.03.790(a) (current AS 46.03.740). At the time of the alleged crime, a person who "negligently" violated this provision was guilty of a class B misdemeanor. Id. ²

The Court of Appeals concluded that the unadorned use of the word "negligently" created an ambiguity as to whether the statute rests on criminal or ordinary negligence. Relying on its past decisions, the court held that criminal liability may be imposed on the basis of simple or ordinary negligence "only for offenses dealing with heavily regulated activities for which permits or licenses are required." Hazelwood, 912 P.2d at 1279 (quoting Cole v. State, 828 P.2d 175, 178 (Alaska App.1992)). ³

In defense of the Court of Appeals' ruling, Hazelwood presents two lines of argument. First, he contends the guarantee of due process demands that criminal penalties be predicated on more than just ordinary negligence. He reads our precedents as requiring a mens rea of at least reckless culpability for criminal offenses. Second, Hazelwood maintains that the statute under which he was convicted itself incorporates the criminal negligence standard. We address each argument in turn.

A. Due Process and a Civil Negligence Mens Rea Standard

1. Alaska law

Hazelwood grounds his due process claim in our decisions in Hentzner v. State, 613 P.2d 821 (Alaska 1980); Kimoktoak v. State, 584 P.2d 25 (Alaska 1978); Alex v. State, 484 P.2d 677 (Alaska 1971); and Speidel v. State, 460 P.2d 77 (Alaska 1969). He contends that in each of these cases we required a showing of recklessness, or subjective awareness of wrongdoing, in order to sustain the criminal conviction.

These decisions stand for a common proposition: that criminal convictions must be predicated on criminal intent. ⁴ In other words, there must be some level of mental culpability on the part of the defendant. However, this principle does not preclude a civil negligence standard. What it does mean is that we will generally read into a criminal statute some level of mens rea, "as opposed to strict criminal liability. " Alex, 484 P.2d at 681 (emphasis added); see also Kimoktoak, 584 P.2d at 29. It is strict liability, and not the negligence standard, which "is an exception to the rule which requires criminal intent." State v. Rice, 626 P.2d 104, 108 (Alaska 1981). The requirement of criminal intent does "not emphasize a specific awareness of wrongfulness." Alex, 484 P.2d at 681. ⁵

The point is illustrated by State v. Guest, 583 P.2d 836 (Alaska 1978), and Rice, 626 P.2d at 104. In each case, we upheld the imposition of criminal sanctions on the basis of simple, ordinary negligence. Guest approved the Superior Court's instruction that the defendant was not guilty of statutory rape if he reasonably believed his victim was of consenting age. In effect, we sustained prosecution on charges that the defendant was negligent as to the victim's age. See Guest, 583 P.2d at 839 n. 5 (quoting Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Jr., Criminal Law § 47, at 356-57 (1972)). Similarly, Rice read into a criminal prohibition on transportation of illegally taken game a requirement that the defendant was at least negligent as to the fact the game was illegally taken. See Rice, 626 P.2d at 110. In both cases, a mens rea of simple or ordinary negligence was made the basis of the offense.

2. Hazelwood's conduct/circumstances distinction

Hazelwood distinguishes Rice and Guest on the ground that in each the negligence standard was applied only to the circumstances of the crime, not the underlying conduct. Due process, he maintains, still requires the government to demonstrate there was "volitional conduct of the prohibited act."

Hazelwood's conduct/circumstances distinction is untenable. As an initial matter, we note that nowhere do our due process precedents differentiate between the minimum mens rea for circumstances and conduct. Nor is there any reason to do so. In many cases, it is only the circumstances of the offense that render it objectionable. No one would suggest, for example, that Rice's transportation of game would still have been criminally sanctionable had it not been taken illegally. The statute proscribes the underlying conduct only when the relevant circumstance is present. The same was true in Guest. Indeed, in both cases, had we not applied a negligence standard to the circumstance of the offense, it would have included no mens rea element whatsoever.

We think Hazelwood confuses volition with intent. While many crimes do not require that their underlying action be carried out with a guilty mind, it is always a defense to prosecution that the conduct was not voluntary. In every case, the alleged infraction must have been the product of a free will, and not coercion, duress, or mental illness. Had terrorists boarded the Exxon Valdez, for example, and demanded that Hazelwood run his vessel onto Bligh Reef, the fact that he did so even with knowledge and purpose would be irrelevant. He could defend on the basis that his act was not voluntary, and thus could not be properly attributed to him. This is not the case here. Hazelwood faced no compulsion that would excuse his conduct at the time the Exxon Valdez rammed into Bligh Reef. While there is a voluntariness element to every criminal offense, because Hazelwood's commissions were his and his alone, this prerequisite is satisfied here. ⁶

As noted above, it is firmly established in our jurisprudence that a mental state of simple or ordinary negligence can support a criminal conviction. Further decisions reveal, however, that in some situations more will be required, and sometimes less. Speidel 460 P.2d at 80, found a denial of due process where the defendant had been convicted of "simple neglectful or negligent...