The court of appeals, in a 2-1 decision holding that the search of defendant's car violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, "reverse[d] and remand[ed] for [an] evidentiary hearing on whether [the] police would have discovered the evidence, inevitably, without the unconstitutional search." State v. White, 468 N.W.2d 556, 558 (Minn.App. 1991). We reverse the decision of the court of appeals and reinstate the judgment of conviction.
"This court will not reverse a conviction on the basis of an erroneous jury instruction unless consideration of the instructions as a whole reveals an abuse of discretion." State v. White, 468 N.W.2d 556, 559 (Minn.App. 1991), rev'd on other grounds, 489 N.W.2d 792 (Minn. 1992).
We note that the burden is on the state to show evidence would have been inevitably discovered, and that the state failed to present evidence to substantiate this at trial. See State v. White, 468 N.W.2d 556, 561 (Minn.App. 1991) (discussing state's burden), rev'd on other grounds, 489 N.W.2d 792 (Minn. 1992); State v. Hatton, 389 N.W.2d 229, 234 (Minn.App. 1986) (inevitable discovery exception is narrow exception), review denied (Minn.