Opinion ID: 1369114
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: felony assessment

Text: A.R.S. § 13-808 (now § 13-812) provides that each person convicted of a felony shall be assessed a penalty of ... one hundred dollars. This money goes into a victim compensation fund. Id. In this case, the trial court did not impose the assessment during the actual sentencing hearing. Instead, the court added the assessment to the sentence by appending a page to the sentencing minute entry. The defendant contends that increasing his sentence after sentencing had ended violated his right against double jeopardy. We disagree. Under the federal constitution, the prohibition against double jeopardy is inapplicable to sentencing decisions other than death sentences. See United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 134-35, 101 S.Ct. 426, 436, 66 L.Ed.2d 328 (1980) (a sentence does not have the qualities of constitutional finality that attend an acquittal); cf. State v. Rumsey, 136 Ariz. 166, 665 P.2d 48 (1983), aff'd, 467 U.S. 203, 104 S.Ct. 2305, 81 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984) (double jeopardy prohibition extended to capital sentencing hearings that bear the hallmarks of a trial on guilt or innocence). Moreover, even if sentencing decisions do implicate double jeopardy concerns, a trial court constitutionally may increase a sentence that it has imposed in contravention of its statutory authority. See Bozza v. United States, 330 U.S. 160, 67 S.Ct. 645, 91 L.Ed. 818 (1947), cited with approval in DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. at 135, 101 S.Ct. at 436; State v. Suniga, 145 Ariz. 389, 393, 701 P.2d 1197, 1201 (App. 1985) (trial court can increase an unlawful sentence or one imposed unlawfully); see also State v. Avila, 147 Ariz. 330, 710 P.2d 440 (1985). In this case, the trial court apparently overlooked its statutory duty to impose a felony assessment. Because the court was required to impose the assessment, its initial sentence was unlawful under the statute and it could correct the sentence to reflect the felony assessment without violating the prohibition against double jeopardy. However, the proper method of correcting an illegal sentence is not by minute entry. Correction of the sentence should have been in open court with the defendant present. Rule 26.9, Ariz.R.Crim.P., 17 A.R.S.