Case Title: Young v. State

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: hawaii

Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

Date: 2006-06-14T00:00:00Z

Document:
*** NOT FOR PUBLICATION **
No. 25350

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF HAWAI‘T
see
MONTE LOUIS YOUNG, JR., Petitioner-Appellant

 

STATE OF HAWAI'I, Respondent-Appellee

 

APPEAL FROM THE FIRST CIRCUIT COURT ©

i
(8.P.P, NO. 01-1-0020 (CR. NO. 97-1194))4) =

su Is NOR
(By: Moon, C.J., Nakayama, and Duffy, JJ.
and Acoba, J., dissenting with whom Levinson, J., joins)

 

Petitioner-Appellant Monte Louis Young, Jr.
[hereinafter “Young”) appeals from the first circuit court's!
september 5, 2002 order denying his Hawai'i Rules of Penal
Procedure [hereinafter “HRPP"] Rule 40 petition for post~
conviction relief.
on appeal, Young essentially contends that the circuit

court committed reversible error when it denied his petition and
ruled that the Hawai'i Paroling Authority [hereinafter “HPA"] did
not deprive hin of his rights to due process by arbitrarily and
capriciously setting his minimum term of incarceration
{hereinafter “minimum term”) at one-hundred-years, inasmuch es
the minimum term (1) contravened the legislative intent behind,
and thus violated, Hawai'i Revised Statutes [hereinafter “HRS") §
706-657 (Supp. 1996),? and (2) violated the “law of the case”

1 the Honorable Victoria §. Marks presided.

2 BRS § 706-57 provides, in its entirety, as follows

§706-657 Enhanced sentence for second degree murder. The
(continued,

 

aa
*** NOT FOR PUBLICATION ***

doctrine.
upon carefully reviewing the record and the briefs

submitted by the parties and having given due consideration to

the arguments advanced and the issues raised, we hold that:

(1) The HPA‘s one-hundred~year minimum term violated

 

neither the letter nor the spirit of HRS § 706-657, inasmuch as
HRS § 706-657 governs the circuit court's imposition of an
enhanced sentence and not the HPA’s determination of a minimum
term. See HRS § 706-657 (Supp. 1996); State v. Kalama, 94
Hawai'i 60, 64, 8 P.3d 1224, 1228 (2000) (**{WJe do not resort to
legislative history to cloud a statutory text that is clear.’")

 

(Quoting Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 147-48 (1994)
2(.. ,eontinued)

Court may sentence 4 person who has been convicted of murder in
the second degree to life inprisonment without possibility of
parole under section 106-656 sf the court finds hat the murder
Soe especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting
‘exceptional depravity or that the person wae previously convicted
Sf the offense of mutder in the first degree or murder in the
Second degree in this State or was previcusly convicted in ancther
Jurisdiction of an offense chat would constitute surder in the
Eiret degree or murder in the second degree in this State. AS
din this section, the phrase “especially heinous, atrocious,
(cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity” means a
Conscienceless of pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous
fo'a victin and “previously convicted” means a sentence imposed
the same tine or 2 sentenct
Set aside, reversed, oF va
Hearings to determine the grounds for imposing an enhanced
sentence for second degree murder may be initiated by the
prosecutor or by the court on its own motion. The court shall not
Impose an enhanced term unless the ground therefor has been
established at a hearing after the conviction of the defendant and
on written notice to the dafendant of the ground proposed
Subject to the provision of section 706-604, the defendant shall
have the right to hear and controvert the evidence agsinst the
Gefendant and to offer evidence upon the issue.

 

 

     

 

 

 
*** NOT FOR PUBLICATION ***
(citations omitted)).?
(2). The HPA’s minimum term did not offend the “law of
the case” doctrine inasmuch as (a) our previous holding in State
Young, 93 Hawai'i 224, 999 P.2d 230 (2000) only precluded the
circuit court from imposing an enhanced sentence under HRS § 706-
657, id. at 238, 999 P.2d at 244, and (2) we have already
concluded that the HPA’s one-hundred-year minimum term is not the
functional equivalent of an enhanced sentence of life without the
possibility of parole. See Ditto v. McCurdy, 98 Hawai'i 123,
128, 44 P.3d 274, 279 (2002) (describing the “law of the case”
doctrine) .

(3) Young failed to demonstrate a due process
violation insofar as the two grounds presented are without merit
and any unspecified grounds have been waived. See Hawai'i Rules
of Appellate Procedure Rule 28(b) (7) (2002) (“Points not argued
may be deemed waived."); Taomae v, Lingle, 108 Hawai'i 245, 257,
118 P.3d 1288, 1200 (2005) (declining to address an alleged due
process violation insofar as the “argument (did) not contain any
reasoning, supported by citations to case law or authority to

constitute discernible argument”).

 

2 Young appears to suggest that, by effectively removing the
possibility of parole from pie Life sentence, the HPA has circunvented the
peeeiearal prerequisites set forth by the legislature in HRG § 706-657, yet
Exiieved che resuit contemplated therein. That contention is factually
seeteeetce Insofar as a one-hundred-year minimum term is not the functional
SENSIS of en enhanced sentence of life without the possibility of parole
$Rlaca, Young's minimun term ia not immutable and he may petition for 2
HiGiteion of his minimum sentence pursuant to Hawai'i Administrative Rules
euetnactor “HAR") § 23-7002), (1992)- Seg HRS § 706-669(5) (providing that
UnStSinthay, “lalfter sixty days petice to the prosecuting attorney,
PSuce ‘the ainimun term”); HAR § 23-700-26 (1992) (delinesting guidelis
Fetus te unether « redsction is warranted). It should be noted that ti
eecStGures would not be svailesle had he received an enhanced sentence und
Eas 706-65

   

  

 

 

 

 

for

  
*** NOT FOR PUBLICATION ***
‘Therefore,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the judoment from which the
appeal is taken is affirmed.
DATED: Honolulu, Hawai‘i, June 14, 2006.

on the briefs:

 

Shawn A. Luiz, tn
sae one sopettant
Daas Ore roe

Lisa M. Ttomura,
Deputy Attorney’ General,
for respondent-appell
State of Hawai'i

 

Came, Ongis th