Title: Ex parte Juan Oziel Rios.

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

rel: 09/30/2015
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance
sheets of Southern Reporter.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-
0649), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before
the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter.
SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
SPECIAL TERM, 2015
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Ex parte Juan Oziel Rios
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
(In re: Juan Oziel Rios
v.
State of Alabama)
(Jefferson Circuit Court, CC-10-3244.61;
Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-14-0939)
BRYAN, Justice.
WRIT DENIED. NO OPINION.
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Stuart, Bolin, Parker, Shaw, Main, and Wise, JJ., concur.
Moore, C.J., concurs specially.
Murdock, J., dissents.
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MOORE, Chief Justice (concurring specially).
I concur with this Court's denial of Juan Oziel Rios's
petition for a writ of certiorari. I write separately because,
as I stated recently in Ex parte Brooker, [Ms. 1141160, Sept.
11, 2015] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2015), I believe a mandatory
sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole for a nonviolent, drug-related crime may be excessive
and unjustified. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the
trial court's denial of Rios's Rule 32, Ala. R. Crim. P.,
petition in an unpublished memorandum. Rios v. State (No.
CR-14-0939, July 2, 2015), __ So. 3d __ (Ala. Crim. App. 2015)
(table). 
The Court of Criminal Appeals' unpublished memorandum
presents the following facts:
"'On October 19, 2010, Rios was traveling
eastbound on Interstate 20 in his tractor-trailer.
Deputy Tim Sanford of the Jefferson County Sheriff's
Office observed Rios's tractor-trailer traveling
slower than normal and swerving onto the shoulder of
the interstate. 
"'Deputy Sanford stopped Rios and told Rios he
was subject to a Department of Transportation
inspection. 
After 
Deputy 
Sanford 
began 
the
inspection, he noticed Rios was sweating profusely.
Deputy 
Sanford 
noted 
Rios's 
tractor-trailer
contained a load of paper towels being carried from
Dallas,
Texas, to Lithia Springs, Georgia, and the
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back two pallets of paper towels were stacked
differently than the others. 
"'Deputy Sanford asked Rios if there was
anything illegal in the tractor-trailer. Rios
appeared fidgety and denied having anything illegal
in his vehicle. Rios then consented to a search of
the tractor-trailer. While searching the trailer,
Deputy Sanford noticed several anomalies, including
construction discrepancies in the roof of the
trailer. These anomalies raised Deputy Sanford's
suspicions, so, with Rios's consent, Deputy Sanford
allowed his canine to perform a sweep of the
tractor-trailer. The canine immediately alerted
Deputy Sanford to the presence of narcotics. Deputy
Sanford and Officer Lane Thompson of the Hoover
Police Department, one of Deputy Sanford's back-up
officers, ultimately found a secret compartment in
the ceiling of the trailer containing 80.42
kilograms of cocaine.'"
(Quoting unpublished memorandum affirming Rios's conviction
and sentence. State v. Rios (No. CR-11-0981, Sept. 21, 2012),
152 So. 3d 461 (Ala. Crim. App. 2012) (table).) The trial
court convicted Rios for 
trafficking cocaine and sentenced him
under § 13A-12-231(2)(d), Ala. Code 1975, to a mandatory term
of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The
Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Rios's conviction and
sentence by unpublished memorandum. State v. Rios (No. CR-11-
0981, Sept. 21, 2012), 152 So. 3d 461 (Ala. Crim. App. 2012)
(table). As was the case in Brooker, the statute in this case
gave the sentencing court no discretion to sentence Rios, who
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apparently had no prior convictions, for a term less than life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole. 
In Alabama, a trial court has sentencing discretion when
a defendant has been convicted of a violent offense such as
armed robbery, rape, or even murder. See, e.g., §§ 13A-8-41,
13A-6-61, 13A-6-2, and 13A-5-6, Ala. Code 1975. Moreover,
under the Habitual Felony Offender Act ("HFOA"), § 13A-5-9,
Ala. Code 1975, a trial court has sentencing discretion when
an offender has been convicted of multiple prior violent
felonies. Yet in cases such as this, where a first-time
offender has trafficked 10 kilograms or more of cocaine, the
trial court must sentence the defendant to life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole. No exceptions. No
discretion. Before 2000, trial courts faced similar mandatory
sentencing guidelines when applying the HFOA, as they do today
under § 13A-12-231(2)(d), Ala. Code 1975. However, in 2000,
the legislature amended the HFOA "to allow a sentence to be
imposed for certain habitual offenders less severe than life
imprisonment 
without 
parole 
under 
certain 
circumstances," 
thus
giving sentencing courts some discretion. Kirby v. State, 899
So. 2d 968, 969 (Ala. 2004) (describing the reasoning and
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rationale behind the amendment to the HFOA). See also Gill v.
State, 157 So. 3d 881 (Ala. 2014) (Moore, C.J., dissenting).
Moreover, the legislature considered this amendment to be so
important that it was made retroactive by § 13A–5–9.1, Ala.
Code 1975 (repealed effective March 13, 2014, see Act No.
2014–165, Ala. Acts 2014). See also Kirby, 899 So. 2d at 970-
75; Gill, 157 So. 3d at 884-87. I urge our legislators to
revisit the mandatory statutory sentencing scheme of §
13A-12-231(2)(d) and similar statutes, as they did with the
HFOA, to determine whether those statutes appropriately serve
the purposes of our criminal-justice system.
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