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Lockhart v. Nelson (full text) :: 488 U.S. 33 (1988) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center Log In
U.S. Supreme CourtLockhart v. Nelson, 488 U.S. 33 (1988)Lockhart v. NelsonNo. 87-1277Argued October 3, 1988Decided November 14, 1988488 U.S. 33CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
Respondent Johnny Lee Nelson pleaded guilty in Arkansas state court to burglary, a class B felony, and misdemeanor theft. He was sentenced under the State's habitual criminal Page 488 U. S. 35 statute, which provides that a defendant who is convicted of a class B felony and "who has previously been convicted of . . . [or] found guilty of four [4] or more felonies," may be sentenced to an enhanced term of imprisonment of between 20 and 40 years. Ark.Stat.Ann. § 41-1001(2)(b) (1977) (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-501 (1987)). To have a convicted defendant's sentence enhanced under the statute, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, at a separate sentencing hearing, that the defendant has the requisite number of prior felony convictions. § 41-1005 (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-502 (1987)); § 41-1003 (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-504 (1987)). Section 41-1003 of the statute sets out the means by which the prosecution may prove the prior felony convictions, providing that
and that three types of documents, including "a duly certified copy of the record of a previous conviction or finding of guilt by a court of record," are "sufficient to support a finding of a prior conviction or finding of guilt." § 41-1003 (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-504 (1987)). [Footnote 1] The defendant is entitled to challenge the State's evidence of his prior convictions and to rebut it with evidence Page 488 U. S. 36 of his own. § 41-1005(2) (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-502(2) (1987)).
At respondent's sentencing hearing, the State introduced, without objection from the defense, certified copies of four prior felony convictions. Unbeknownst to the prosecutor, one of those convictions had been pardoned by the Governor several years after its entry. Defense counsel made no objection to the admission of the pardoned conviction, because he too was unaware of the Governor's action. On cross-examination, respondent indicated his belief that the conviction in question had been pardoned. The prosecutor suggested that respondent was confusing a pardon with a commutation to time served. Under questioning from the court, respondent agreed that the conviction had been commuted, rather than pardoned, and the matter was not pursued any further. [Footnote 2] The case was submitted to the jury, [Footnote 3] which found that the State had met its burden of proving four prior convictions, and imposed an enhanced sentence. The state courts upheld the enhanced sentence on both direct and collateral review, despite respondent's protestations that one of the convictions relied upon by the State had been pardoned. [Footnote 4] Page 488 U. S. 37
Several years later, respondent sought a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court, contending once again that the enhanced sentence was invalid because one of the prior convictions used to support it had been pardoned. When an investigation undertaken by the State at the District Court's request revealed that the conviction in question had in fact been pardoned, the District Court declared the enhanced sentence to be invalid. The State announced its intention to resentence respondent as a habitual offender, using another prior conviction not offered or admitted at the initial sentencing hearing, and respondent interposed a claim of double jeopardy. After hearing arguments from counsel, the District Court decided that the Double Jeopardy Clause prevented the State from attempting to resentence respondent as a habitual offender on the burglary charge. 641 F.Supp. 174 (1986). [Footnote 5] The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. 828 F.2d 446 (1987). The Court of Appeals reasoned that the pardoned conviction was not admissible under state law, and that "[w]ithout [it], the state has failed to provide sufficient evidence" to sustain the enhanced sentence. Id. at 449-450. We granted certiorari to review this interpretation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. 485 U.S. 904 (1988). [Footnote 6] Page 488 U. S. 38
Id. at 377 U. S. 466. Page 488 U. S. 39 Permitting retrial after a conviction has been set aside also serves the interests of defendants, for
Burks was based on the view that an appellate court's reversal for insufficiency of the evidence is, in effect, a determination that the government's case against the defendant was so lacking that the trial court should have entered a judgment of acquittal, rather than submitting the case to the jury. Burks, 437 U.S. at 437 U. S. 16-17. Because the Double Jeopardy Clause affords the defendant who obtains a judgment of acquittal at the trial level absolute immunity from further prosecution for the same offense, it ought to do the same for the defendant who obtains an appellate determination that the trial court should have entered a judgment of acquittal. Id. at 437 U. S. 10-11, 437 U. S. 16. The fact that the determination of entitlement to a judgment of acquittal is made by the appellate court, rather than the trial court, should not, we thought, affect its double jeopardy consequences; to hold otherwise "would create a purely arbitrary distinction" between defendants based on the hierarchical level at which the determination was made. Id. at 437 U. S. 11. Page 488 U. S. 40
It appears to us to be beyond dispute that this is a situation described in Burks as reversal for "trial error" -- the trial court erred in admitting a particular piece of evidence, and without it there was insufficient evidence to support a judgment of conviction. But clearly, with that evidence, there was enough to support the sentence: the court and jury had before them certified copies of four prior felony convictions, and that is sufficient to support a verdict of enhancement under the statute. See Ark.Stat.Ann. § 41-1003 (1977) (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-504 (1987)). The fact that one of the convictions had been later pardoned by the Governor vitiated its legal effect, but it did not deprive the certified copy of that conviction of its probative value under the statute. [Footnote 7] It is quite clear from our opinion in Page 488 U. S. 41 Burks that a reviewing court must consider all of the evidence admitted by the trial court in deciding whether retrial is permissible under the Double Jeopardy Clause -- indeed, that was the ratio decidendi of Burks, see 437 U.S. at 437 U. S. 16-17 -- and the overwhelming majority of appellate courts considering the question have agreed. [Footnote 8] The basis for the Burks exception to the general rule is that a reversal for insufficiency of the evidence should be treated no differently than a trial court's granting a judgment of acquittal at the close of all the evidence. A trial court in passing on such a Page 488 U. S. 42 motion considers all of the evidence it has admitted, and to make the analogy complete it must be this same quantum of evidence which is considered by the reviewing court.
Under Arkansas law, a defendant who is convicted of a class B felony and "who has previously been convicted of . . . [or] found guilty of four [4] or more felonies" may be sentenced to an enhanced term of imprisonment ranging from 20 years to 40 years. Ark.Stat.Ann. § 41-1001(2)(b) (1977) (current version at Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-501(b)(3) (1987)). At the March, 1982, sentencing trial held after Johnny Lee Nelson pleaded guilty to the class B felony of burglary, [Footnote 2/1] the State of Arkansas introduced evidence indicating that Nelson Page 488 U. S. 43 had four prior felony convictions. Nelson protested that he had received a gubernatorial pardon for one of the convictions. The prosecutor and the trial judge disbelieved Nelson's claim, however, and the jury sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Three and a half years later -- during which time Nelson, from jail, persistently implored Arkansas courts to investigate his pardon claim -- a Federal District Court finally ordered the State to check its records. Lo and behold, it turned out that Nelson had been pardoned -- and Arkansas soon announced its intention to try Nelson, once again, as a habitual offender. [Footnote 2/2]
The majority holds today that, although Arkansas attempted once and failed to prove that Nelson had the four prior convictions required for habitual offender status, it does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause for Arkansas to attempt again. I believe, however, that Nelson's retrial is squarely foreclosed by Burks v. United States, 437 U. S. 1 Page 488 U. S. 44 (1978), where we held that a State may not retry a defendant where it failed initially to present sufficient evidence of guilt. The majority rushes headlong past those facets of Nelson's case and of Arkansas law that reveal the prosecution's failure to present sufficient evidence of guilt in this case, in order to answer the open and narrow question of Double Jeopardy law on which the Court granted certiorari. By virtue of the majority's haste, Nelson now faces a new sentencing trial, and Arkansas will be able to augment the evidence it presented at Nelson's initial trial with evidence of prior convictions it opted not to introduce in the first place. Because this result embodies the classic double jeopardy evil of a State "honing its trial strategies and perfecting its evidence through successive attempts at conviction," Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U. S. 31, 457 U. S. 41 (1982), I dissent.
This case is troubling in a number of respects, not the least of which is that no one in the Arkansas criminal justice system seems to have taken Nelson's pardon claim at all seriously. Page 488 U. S. 45 At bottom, however, this case is controlled by the Burks insufficiency principle. For, under Arkansas' law of pardons, the State's evidence against Nelson in his sentencing trial was at all times insufficient to prove four valid prior convictions. The majority errs in treating this as a case of mere trial error, and in reaching the unsettled issue of whether, after a trial error reversal based on the improper admission of evidence, a reviewing court should evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence by including, or excluding, the tainted evidence. See Greene v. Massey, supra, at 437 U. S. 26, n. 9 (expressly reserving this question). This case has nothing to do with inadmissible evidence, and everything to do with Arkansas' defective proof.
As the District Court noted in ruling for Nelson, Arkansas decisional law holds that pardoned convictions have no probative value in sentence enhancement proceedings. See 641 F.Supp. 174, 183 (ED Ark.1986) (under Arkansas law: "[A] pardon renders the conviction a nullity. . . . [F]or purposes of the enhancement statute, a conviction which has been pardonned [sic] is not a conviction"). The District Court cited a 1973 decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court, Duncan v. State, 254 Ark. 449, 494 S.W.2d 127 (1973), which held that a pardoned conviction cannot be counted toward the four prior convictions required under the State's sentence enhancement statute. The Duncan court, id. at 451, 494 S.W.2d at 129, quoted with approval this Court's decision in Ex parte Garland, 4 Wall. 333, 71 U. S. 380 (1867), where we stated:
Drawing upon that state court holding, the District Court in this case concluded: "The truth is that the state could not Page 488 U. S. 46 have provided any evidence to rebut the petitioner's contention, because it did not exist." 641 F.Supp. at 184. [Footnote 2/3]
That Arkansas was not roused to investigate Nelson's pardon claim until long after his trial does not transform the State's failure of proof -- fatal for double jeopardy purposes under Burks -- into a mere failure of admissibility. As the District Court noted, Arkansas law establishes "that the prosecutor must carry the significant burden of ferreting out information regarding the validity of prior convictions whenever he seeks enhancement." Ibid. (citing Roach v. State, 255 Ark. 773, 503 S.W.2d 467 (Ark.1973)). The delay in the discovery of Nelson's pardon does not change the essential fact that, as a matter of state law, the paper evidence of the disputed conviction presented by the prosecutor was devoid of probative value from the moment the conviction was expunged by the pardon. A pardon simply "blots out of existence" the conviction as if it had never happened. Duncan v. State, supra, at 451, 494 S.W.2d at 129. If, in seeking to prove Nelson's four prior convictions, the State had offered documented evidence to prove three valid prior convictions and a blank piece of paper to prove a fourth, no one would doubt that Arkansas had produced insufficient evidence and that the Double Jeopardy Clause barred retrial. There is no constitutionally significant difference between that hypothetical and this case. [Footnote 2/4] Page 488 U. S. 47
Ante at 488 U. S. 40-41. Burks decided no such thing. At issue in Burks was whether a finding of initial insufficiency bars a defendant's retrial; we held that it did. Page 488 U. S. 48 Burks did not presume to decide the completely distinct issue, raised by this case, of by what measure a reviewing court evaluates insufficiency in cases where a piece of evidence which went to the jury is later ruled inadmissible. Indeed, had Burks settled or even logically foreclosed this issue, there would have been no reason for us specifically to reserve its resolution in Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. at 437 U. S. 26, n. 9 -- a case decided the very same day as Burks. [Footnote 2/5]
Green v. United States, 355 U.S. at 355 U. S. 187-188. Page 488 U. S. 49 See also Burks, supra, at 437 U. S. 11. Society's corresponding interest in the sound administration of justice reflects the fact that
I do not intend in this dissenting opinion to settle what rule best accommodates these competing interests in cases where a reviewing court has determined that a portion of a State's proof was inadmissible. At first blush, it would seem that the defendant's interest is every bit as great in this situation as in the Burks situation. Society's interest, however, would appear to turn on a number of variables. The chief one is the likelihood that retrying the defendant will lead to conviction. See United States v. Tateo, supra, at 377 U. S. 466 (noting society's interest "in punishing one whose guilt is clear"). In appraising this likelihood, one might inquire into whether prosecutors tend in close cases to hold back probative evidence of a defendant's guilt; if they do not, there would be scant societal interest in permitting retrial, given that the State's remaining evidence is, by definition, insufficient. [Footnote 2/6] Alternatively, one might inquire as to why the evidence at issue was deemed inadmissible. Where evidence was stricken for reasons having to do with its unreliability, it would seem curious to include it in the sufficiency calculus. Inadmissible hearsay evidence, for example, Page 488 U. S. 50 or evidence deemed defective or nonprobative as a matter of law thus might not be included. By contrast, evidence stricken in compliance with evidentiary rules grounded in other public policies -- the policy of encouraging subsequent remedial measures embodied in Federal Rule of Evidence 407, for example, or the policy of deterring unconstitutional searches and seizures embodied in the exclusionary rule -- might more justifiably be included in a double jeopardy sufficiency analysis. [Footnote 2/7]
The Court of Appeals did not disturb this determination of the District Court. Rather, it focused upon, and rejected, Arkansas' separate contention that double jeopardy does not attach to sentence enhancement trials. See 828 F.2d 446, 449 (CA8 1987). That issue is not before this Court, Arkansas having conceded the validity of this aspect of the Court of Appeals' ruling. See ante at 36-37, n. 4. The Court of Appeals also rejected as incorrect Arkansas' claim that, in cases of trial error, reviewing courts should not engage in any subsequent review for insufficiency, however measured. 828 F.2d at 450.
Arkansas suggests a "clear trial court ruling" test as a means of accommodating defense and societal interests. Under this test, where a trial court has affirmatively ruled that a piece of evidence is admissible, a State is entitled to rely on that ruling by counting this evidence in a subsequent insufficiency analysis -- even if a reviewing court had ruled the evidence inadmissible. Brief for Petitioner 12. This test furthers a societal interest of which this Court took note in United States v. Tateo, 377 U. S. 463, 377 U. S. 466 (1964): the interest in not deterring appellate courts from safeguarding defendants' rights. It is not at all clear, however, that Arkansas' test would authorize retrial in this case. Far from having refrained from introducing evidence of additional convictions in reliance on a trial court's determination that Nelson had not received a pardon, the prosecutor in this case seems to have done all he could to lead the trial court to believe that Nelson's pardon claim was meritless. See n. 2, supra.