Opinion ID: 2534191
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: factual comparability

Text: ¶ 13 In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court held that except for a prior conviction, a fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348. Life without possibility of parole is a penalty beyond the statutory maximum for the crime of second degree robbery. ¶ 14 In applying Apprendi, we have held that the existence of a prior conviction need not be presented to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Smith, 150 Wash.2d 135, 141-43, 75 P.3d 934 (2003); accord Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998). All a sentencing court needs to do is find that the prior conviction exists. State v. Wheeler, 145 Wash.2d 116, 121, 34 P.3d 799 (2001). No additional safeguards are required because a certified copy of a prior judgment and sentence is highly reliable evidence. Smith, 150 Wash.2d at 143, 75 P.3d 934. While this is also true of foreign crimes that are identical on their face, it is not true for foreign crimes that are not facially identical. In essence, such crimes are different crimes. ¶ 15 The State asks us to remand this case to the sentencing court so that it may examine the underlying facts of Lavery's federal robbery conviction to determine if his 1991 offense was factually comparable to Washington's second degree robbery. Where the foreign statute is broader than Washington's, that examination may not be possible because there may have been no incentive for the accused to have attempted to prove that he did not commit the narrower offense. See, e.g., State v. Ortega, 120 Wash.App. 165, 84 P.3d 935 (2004). ¶ 16 In Ortega, Jose Ortega pleaded guilty to first degree child molestation. Ortega, 120 Wash.App. at 168, 84 P.3d 935. The State sought to have him sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole under the POAA. Id. To do so, the sentencing judge would have had to conclude that a 1991 Texas conviction for indecency with a child in the second degree was comparable to a Washington strike offense. Id. at 169, 84 P.3d 935. The most similar crime in Washington required the child to be (1) under the age of 12, (2) not the defendant's spouse, and (3) more than 36 months younger than the perpetrator. Id. at 168, 84 P.3d 935. However, the Texas statute criminalized contact with children under the age of 17. Id. at 172, 84 P.3d 935. Ortega had not admitted or stipulated to the age of the child in Texas. Id. Further, even if the child in the Texas case had claimed to be 11, Ortega would have had no incentive to challenge and prove that the child was actually 12 at the time of the contact. The critical fact in the Texas proceeding was that the child was under 17. Ortega would have been just as guilty of the Texas crime if the child had been 12, 13 or even 16, and therefore, had no reason to contest the child's actual age. ¶ 17 Any attempt to examine the underlying facts of a foreign conviction, facts that were neither admitted or stipulated to, nor proved to the finder of fact beyond a reasonable doubt in the foreign conviction, proves problematic. Where the statutory elements of a foreign conviction are broader than those under a similar Washington statute, the foreign conviction cannot truly be said to be comparable. ¶ 18 As in Ortega, Lavery had no motivation in the earlier conviction to pursue defenses that would have been available to him under Washington's robbery statute but were unavailable in the federal prosecution. Furthermore, Lavery neither admitted nor stipulated to facts which established specific intent in the federal prosecution, and specific intent was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt in the 1991 federal robbery conviction. We conclude that Lavery's 1991 foreign robbery conviction is neither factually nor legally comparable to Washington's second degree robbery and therefore not a strike under the POAA.