Setting the Record Straight on DWOL Defenses
State
v. Castillon (HSC May
16, 2019)
Background. Michelle
Castillon was cited and charged for driving without a license. HRS § 286-102. At
trial, the prosecution called the citing officer who testified that he stopped
Castillon because her vehicle had expired safety and registration tags. The
officer asked Castillon if she had a driver’s license. She could not. The
officer testified at trial that he called into dispatch to see if she had a
license. Dispatch reported back that her license had been revoked. The prosecution
also called a County official who testified that her database did not include
licenses in Canada. There was no testimony about Mexico.
Castillon presented no
evidence that she possessed a valid license issued from Canada or Mexico. She
argued that the prosecution had the burden of proving that not only did she
lack a license in Hawaii, but she did not have a license in Canada or Mexico.
The district court (Hon. Judge Margaret Masunaga) rejected this argument and
convicted Castillon.
Castillon appealed to the
ICA. The ICA affirmed. You can read that opinion HERE. The HSC took certiorari
for further review.
How
to read the DWOL Statute. “A person operating . . . motor vehicles
shall be examined as provided in section 286-108 and duly licensed by the
examiner of drivers[.]” HRS § 286-102(b). This provision is exempt, however,
for a person in possession of the “equivalent to a driver’s license issued in
this State but was issued to the person in another state of the United States”
and “Mexico, or a province of the Dominion of Canada[.]” HRS § 286-105(3) and
(4).
The ICA held that the
defendant bore the initial burden to show an exemption before it shifts to the
prosecution to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt. The ICA reasoned that
exemptions are always a defense and are not elements to the offense when “
Clarifying
the ICA’s Opinion. The HSC agreed with the ICA’s analysis in all
respects but one. The HSC took issue with the ICA’s reliance on State v. Nobriga, 10 Haw. App. 353, 873
P.2d 110 (1994). The ICA noted that exemptions are always defenses and are
never elements to the offense “when the facts or evidence concerning [the
exemption] are peculiarly within the knowledge of the defendant or within the defendant’s
private control.”
The HSC noted that this
should not be a hard and fast rule. A defense is “a fact or set of facts which
negatives penal liability[.]” HRS § 701-115(a). It does not matter if the facts
are something the defendant should know about or control. So long as there is “some
evidence . . . no matter how weak, inconclusive, or unsatisfactory the evidence
may be,” the defendant has met his or her initial burden. State v. Pinero, 75 Haw. 282, 304, 859 P.2d 1369, 1379 (1993).
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