State v. Plastow

Summary

The Supreme Court of South Dakota considered the State’s intermediate appeal from the suppression of Alvin Plastow’s admissions concerning the sexual assault of a child. The court adopted the trustworthiness standard as an alternative to the traditional corpus delicti rule for corroborating admissions, but held that applying the new standard retroactively would violate Plastow’s due process right to fair warning. The court therefore affirmed the suppression ruling.

Holdings

1. For purposes of admitting an extrajudicial admission, the State need not present independent evidence of every element of the charged offense; under the traditional corpus delicti rule, it need only establish the corpus delicti, meaning the fact of an injury or loss and the fact that someone was criminally responsible.
2. The photograph, standing alone, did not create a reasonable inference that S.G. had been raped and therefore did not satisfy the traditional corpus delicti requirement for admitting Plastow's admissions.
3. South Dakota adopts the trustworthiness rule of Opper and Smith as an alternative method of corroborating admissions in cases where the defense seeks to suppress an admission before it is admitted into evidence.
4. The trustworthiness rule could not be applied retroactively to Plastow because doing so would violate his due process right to fair warning.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court incorrectly required independent evidence of every element of rape, rather than independent evidence establishing the corpus delicti, before admitting Plastow's extrajudicial admissions.
2. Whether South Dakota should replace its traditional corpus delicti rule for admitting admissions with the trustworthiness standard adopted in Opper v. United States and Smith v. United States.
3. Whether the newly adopted trustworthiness standard could constitutionally be applied retroactively to Plastow's case.
4. Whether the photograph, standing alone, established a reasonable probability that S.G. had been raped under the then-existing corpus delicti rule.

Disposition

affirmed