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511 P.2d 1076

Lee v. State

Alaska Supreme Court

Decided July 9, 1973

Alaska Supreme Court · decided 1973-07-09

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“to avoid discovery of evidence beneficial to the defense.”

quoted by 4 later decisions, including Harmon v. State, State v. Koehler

“You are instructed that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant possessed a usable quantity of a narcotic drug in order to find, him guilty. Possession of an unusable trace or residual debris is not enough in and of itself to warrant a conviction. However, the possession of a residual debris can be treated as circumstantial evidence of possession' of a usable quantity of a narcotic drug. If you do not find that the defendant was in possession of a usable quantity of a narcotic drug, it is your duty to find him not guilty. 3. That the substance possessed by the defendant .was in fact an opium derivative.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Aldridge v. State

Relies on Brady v. State of Maryland · United States v. Augenblick · United States v. Carlton E. Bryant, United States of America v. William E. Turner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1973-07-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently November 2021

18 state decisions

110197319801990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1OPINION

ERWIN, Justice.

¶2This is an appeal from a conviction and subsequent sentence of four years for possession of the narcotic drug, heroin. This case arose August 6, 1971, when police officers arrested appellant at his home pursuant to a warrant and searched his clothing prior to removing him to the state jail. The search of his pants pockets revealed four balloons, including three which contained a residue of white powder. Chemical analysis determined that the residue of powder contained in one balloon was heroin.

¶3Appellant alleges the trial court committed error in admitting the laboratory analysis of the material found in one balloon in evidence at his trial on the grounds the entire amount found in the balloon was used in analysis and therefore he was denied due process of law because he was deprived of independent examination of this substance. He further urges that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that they must find recent possession of a usable quantity of a narcotic drug before they could convict him of unlawful possession of such drug.

¶4We find that due process of law does not require that the defendant be permitted independent expert examination of evidence in the possession of the prosecution before such evidence is introduced at the trial.1 Under normal practices Criminal Rule 16 envisions the discovery of such evidence. In those cases where expert analysis exhausts the substance there is clearly no error in the admission of evidence regarding the analysis in the absence of allegations and proof of deliberate destruction,2 or deliberate attempts to avoid discovery of evidence beneficial to the defense.3 Both the aforementioned factors are conceded by appellant to be inapplicable to the case at bar.

¶5The concept of due process of law in the trial of a criminal defendant apart from trials conducted in violation of ex*1078press constitutional mandates is violated “only where the barriers and safeguards are so relaxed or forgotten . . . that the proceeding is more a spectacle . or trial by ordeal . . . than a disciplined contest.” 4 There is no indication in this case of such problems. This case was conducted with commendable speed in complete compliance with normal rules of court. It is apparent that the alleged problem might have been further minimized if appellant had secured expert examination of the contents of two of the remaining balloons which still contained a residue of powder even at the time they were introduced in evidence at the trial of this case.

¶6The contention of appellant that he could not be convicted of unlawful possession of a narcotic drug unless a usable quantity of the drug was found was discussed and rejected in Judd v. State,5 where this court specifically stated:

We find that the purpose of the Alaska Narcotic Drug Act is to deter improper traffic in narcotic drugs by making it illegal to knowingly possess certain drugs. Where the facts of a case show knowing possession of illegal drugs, it is unnecessary that a usable quantity be found so long as a sufficient quantity of the drug is found to permit proper identification. If all of the evidence in the case, taken together, supports the jury’s findings of knowing possession beyond a reasonable doubt, the conviction is proper.6

¶7Since the instruction given in the case at bar was taken from this language in Judd, we find no error by the trial court in refusing appellant’s requested instructioiis.7

¶8The judgment and conviction is affirmed.

FITZGERALD, J., not participating.RABINO WITZ, C. ]., and CONNOR, J., dissenting individually.

¶9. United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 356, 89 S.Ct. 528, 21 L.Ed.2d 537, 545 (1969).

¶10. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, 218 (1963).

¶11. United States v. Bryant, 439 F.2d 642, 651 (D.C.Cir.1971).

¶12. United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 356, 89 S.Ct. 528, 534, 21 L.Ed.2d 537, 545 (1969) (citations omitted).

¶13. 482 P.2d 273 (Alaska 1971).

¶14. Id.at y. 280 (footnote omitted).

¶15. It is appropriate to note that the quantity of a narcotic drug in possession of a defendant is relevant to the inquiry of whether under all the facts and circumstances of a case the defendant knowingly possessed narcotic drugs. In the case at bar there is evidence of knowing possession. Investigator Jones, an experienced narcotics enforcement officer, testified that during the year or two prior to trial, toy balloons were used to package heroin at the street level in about 85 percent of cases coming to his attention. Agent Wood testified similarly, and also stated that capsules were used for the same purpose. Several balloons and a quantity of unidentified capsules were found on the defendant at the time of this arrest. Two of the balloons still contained an unanalyzed residue of white powder at the time of the trial.

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