Opinion ID: 2353039
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retroactivity of Schofield

Text: [¶ 28] Ashby filed a petition for post-conviction review on November 30, 2005. Pursuant to 15 M.R.S. § 2128(5), Ashby's claim that his sentence violated Blakely is time-barred because he filed his petition over one year after the Court issued Blakely. We, however, issued our decision in Schofield on June 29, 2005. Ashby's petition was within the one-year statute of limitations of the Schofield decision, and his petition would be timely if Schofield announced a new constitutional right that applies retroactively to cases on collateral review. Id. § 2128(5)(B). Carmichael filed his second post-conviction petition, which we now review, before we announced Schofield. However, by asserting a Blakely claim, Carmichael has preserved his right to argue that his sentence also violates Schofield. [¶ 29] We have adopted the Teague test to determine whether a new rule of criminal procedure applies retroactively. Casella v. State, 2002 ME 117, ¶ 12, 802 A.2d 404, 408; Thompson v. State, 625 A.2d 299, 300 (Me.1993). We have not applied the Teague test to our decision in Schofield. An application of the Teague test is dispositive of whether Ashby's post-conviction petition is time-barred. Thus, the same three-step Teague analysis applied to Blakely must be reapplied to Schofield.
[¶ 30] Ashby pleaded guilty in 2001 and did not appeal the conviction. His conviction became final in 2001.
[¶ 31] In Schofield, we held that the Sixth Amendment prohibited judges from finding a sentencing enhancement that increased a sentence beyond twenty years if the conduct involved was among the most heinous crimes. 2005 ME 82, ¶ 2, 895 A.2d at 929. Schofield was sentenced pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1252(2)(A) (Supp.2001), [4] which provided: In the case of a Class A crime, the court shall set a definite period not to exceed 40 years. The court may consider a serious criminal history of the defendant and impose a maximum period of incarceration in excess of 20 years based on either the nature or seriousness of the crime alone or the nature and seriousness of the crime coupled with the serious criminal history of the defendant. [¶ 32] Schofield had no criminal history and thus the court could have imposed a twenty-eight-year sentence only if it determined that her criminal conduct was among the most heinous and violent crimes committed against a person. Schofield, 2005 ME 82, ¶ 16, 895 A.2d at 932. The court made that finding by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. [¶ 33] We reached our conclusion that the court's second-tier sentence violated the Sixth Amendment relying on Apprendi and Blakely. Id. ¶¶ 17-20, 895 A.2d at 932-33. We focused on Blakely's holding that the statutory maximum for Apprendi purposes was the maximum sentence a judge may impose solely on the basis of the facts reflected in the jury verdict or admitted by the defendant. Id. ¶ 17, 895 A.2d at 932 (quoting Blakely, 542 U.S. at 303-05, 124 S.Ct. 2531 (citations omitted) (emphasis in original)). We determined that because the finding that Schofield's crime was among the most heinous crimes committed against a person was not pleaded and proved beyond a reasonable doubt, nor admitted by Schofield, her sentence violated the Sixth Amendment. Schofield, 2005 ME 82, ¶ 21, 895 A.2d at 933. [¶ 34] We determined that the comparative nature of the finding did not matter. Id. ¶¶ 22-25, 895 A.2d at 933-34. We found that a number of jurisdictions required that juries find whether a crime was especially heinous as an aggravating factor warranting the death penalty. Id. ¶ 23, 895 A.2d at 933-34. We also noted that the United States Supreme Court decided in Ring that a jury must determine aggravating factors in a death penalty case, one of which was to determine whether the crime was committed in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner. Id. ¶ 25, 895 A.2d at 934 (quotation marks omitted). [¶ 35] Schofield, however, divided us: three justices dissented, contending that the sentence Schofield received did not violate the Sixth Amendment. Id. ¶ 42, 895 A.2d at 938 (Clifford, J., dissenting). The dissent noted that we have long held that facts incident to a crime used to enhance a penalty must be pleaded and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. ¶ 43, 895 A.2d at 938-39 (citations omitted). The dissent explained, however, that the factual findings made by the judge in Schofield did not have be pleaded and proved. Id. ¶ 48, 895 A.2d at 940. Those findings were not the discrete factual findings made in Apprendi and Blakely, but rather an evaluative analysis that compared Schofield's crime to the other ways in which a criminal act can be committed. Id. The dissent explained such an analysis had historically been judicially determined. Id. In the dissent's view, Apprendi and Blakely did not intend to usurp judges' traditional ability in sentencing to engage in a comparative analysis that would be difficult and improper for a jury to resolve. Id. ¶ 51, 895 A.2d at 941. [¶ 36] The dissent's reasoning demonstrates that while Blakely supported Schofield, reasonable jurists differed over whether Blakely compelled our ruling in Schofield. See Beard, 542 U.S. at 416, 124 S.Ct. 2504. Pursuant to Teague, the unlawfulness of Schofield's conviction would not have been apparent to all reasonable jurists. [¶ 37] Other courts struggled with exactly the same question after Blakely. They too were divided, further supporting that reasonable jurists could have concluded that Blakely did not mandate that a jury find the type of sentencing enhancement in Schofield. [¶ 38] In State v. Foster, the Ohio Supreme Court determined the application of Blakely to Ohio's sentencing statutes. 109 Ohio St.3d 1, 2006-Ohio-856, 845 N.E.2d 470. The court examined many sentencing provisions, one of which provided that the court imposing a sentence upon an offender for a felony may impose the longest prison term authorized for the offense . . . only upon offenders who have committed the worst forms of the offense . . . . Id. ¶ 44, 845 N.E.2d 470; OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 2929.14(C) (LexisNexis 2007) (emphasis added). Although the court, in Foster, noted that most Ohio appellate courts determined that Blakely was inapplicable to the sentencing enhancements, such as section 2929.14(C), it found that use of judicial fact-finding to reach a maximum sentence violated Blakely. 109 Ohio St.3d 1, 2006-Ohio-856, 845 N.E.2d 470, at ¶¶ 50, 83. Its determination is thus in line with Schofield. [¶ 39] Before Foster, however, the judges of the Ohio appellate courts were split on the issue. In State v. Quinones, an appeals court determined that the jury must make a finding of whether Quinones committed the worst form of the offense. No. 83720, 2004 WL 1903250, at ¶¶ 14-15, 2004 Ohio App. LEXIS 4072, at ¶¶ 29-30 (Aug. 26, 2004). The decision elicited a dissent which explained that a judge's determination that the defendant committed the worst form of the offense did not implicate Blakely because the determination did not necessitate additional fact-finding. Id. ¶¶ 40-44. In State v. Abdul-Mumin, an appeals court concluded that a judge's determination of the seriousness of the offense did not contradict Blakely, because judges had traditionally concluded those elements during sentencing. Nos. 04AP485, 04AP-486, 2005 WL 315062, at ¶¶ 23-25, 2005 Ohio App. LEXIS 527, at ¶¶ 28-29 (Feb. 10, 2005). [¶ 40] In State v. Lett, an appeals court sitting en banc determined that judicial determination of whether the offender committed the worst form of the offense did not implicate Blakely, reasoning that such determinations were within the exercise of a judge's discretion in sentencing. 161 Ohio App.3d 274, 2005 Ohio 2665, 829 N.E.2d 1281, at ¶¶ 21-25. A single judge, however, disagreed with that part of the court's decision and dissented. Id. ¶¶ 131-36, 829 N.E.2d 1281. [¶ 41] Coupled with our disagreement, the division in the Ohio courts over whether a judge's determination of the seriousness of the offense violates Blakely plainly demonstrates that reasonable jurists differed over whether Blakely compelled the result in Schofield. We therefore conclude that Schofield announced a new rule. Schofield applies to cases on collateral review only if it falls under one of Teague's exceptions.
[¶ 42] Having decided that Schofield announced a newly recognized constitutional right, pursuant to Teague we must determine whether that right is either substantive or a watershed rule of criminal procedure. However, our determination that the Teague exceptions are inapplicable to Blakely necessarily makes them inapplicable to Schofield. Schofield merely applied Blakely to a specific Maine statute. As we discussed above, Blakely is not a substantive rule, nor a watershed rule of criminal procedure, and thus does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral appeal. It follows a fortiori that as an application of Blakely, Schofield does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral appeal. The entry is: The dismissals of Carmichael's and Ashby's petitions for post-conviction review are affirmed.