Opinion ID: 1375362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Classification of Conspiracy to Commit Second Degree Murder For Sentencing Purposes

Text: Again, by analogy to the same class and grade language in the attempt statute, the prosecution urges us to hold that conspiracy to commit second degree murder is subject to the new sentencing provisions of HRS § 706-656 (1993), entitled Terms of imprisonment for first and second degree murder and attempted first and second degree murder. We decline to do so. As previously discussed, conspiracy to commit second degree murder is a felony without specification of a class. HRS § 706-610 (1993) provides that, for the purpose of sentence ... a felony, without specification of class, is a class C felony. We acknowledge that, prior to the '86 and '87 amendments, conspiracy to commit second degree murder was a class B felony. Nonetheless, it is our task to both construe the statute strictly, State v. Ortiz, 74 Haw. 343, 352, 845 P.2d 547, 552 (1993) (citations omitted), and to read it with a presumption of constitutionality, State v. Gaylord, 78 Hawai`i 127, 137, 890 P.2d 1167, 1177 (1995) (citations omitted). In the absence of any guidance regarding the legislature's intent, we are required to construe a sentencing provision in favor of the defendant. See Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 406, 100 S.Ct. 1747, 1752-53, 64 L.Ed.2d 381 (1980). Ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity. Id. (citations omitted). This policy of lenity means that the [c]ourt will not interpret a [state] criminal statute so as to increase the penalty that it places on an individual when such an interpretation can be based on no more than a guess as to what [the legislature] intended. Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6, 15, 98 S.Ct. 909, 914, 55 L.Ed.2d 70 (1978). Therefore, we hold that the statutory scheme gives clear and unambiguous notice to persons of reasonable intelligence that, for sentencing purposes, conspiracy to commit second degree murder is a class C felony and subject to the sentencing provisions of HRS § 706-660. [7]