Opinion ID: 2192485
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exile

Text: We turn then to the merits of this case and to the issue of whether Reeves was indeed exiled. If so, can her condition of probation relating to exile be modified? Article 2 § 21 of the Arkansas Constitution provides: No person shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseized of his estate, freehold, liberties or privileges; or outlawed, or in any manner destroyed or deprived of his life, liberty or property, except by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; nor shall any person, under any circumstances, be exiled from the State. Banishment or exile has been defined by the North Carolina Court of Appeals as an order which compels a person to quit a city, place, or county for a specific period of time, or for life. State v. Culp, 30 N.C.App. 398, 226 S.E.2d 841, 842 (1976) (quoting 8 C.J.S. Banishment p. 593). The effect of imposing banishment or exile as a condition of probation was discussed by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1967. See State v. Young, 278 Minn. 381, 154 N.W.2d 699 (1967). In Young, the trial court granted the defendant probation on the condition that the defendant leave the State of Minnesota and take up residence in Nevada. The defendant was willing to leave the state and said so at his sentencing hearing. The defendant then sought to modify that condition. The Minnesota Supreme Court agreed that the exile condition was void and said: We are in accord with the great weight of American decisional law which holds that it is beyond the power of a court to impose banishment as a condition of probation. The imposition of such a condition is [a]void and separable part of the judgment of conviction. The condition is unauthorized by statute, is contrary to public policy, and is repugnant to the underlying policy of the probation law, which is to rehabilitate offenders without compromising public safety. Id. at 702. But see State v. Collett, 232 Ga. 668, 208 S.E.2d 472 (1974) (Georgia Supreme Court upheld condition of probation banishing the defendant from seven counties within the state). We have no doubt that in the case before us Reeves was effectively exiled from this state for seven years. She was permitted returns to the state twice a year for three consecutive days. Such meager visits do not cure what is essentially probation conditioned on a court-ordered exile. As already noted, exile is expressly forbidden by our state constitution, which renders this condition requiring exile void as a matter of law. The order denying the motion to modify this condition of probation is reversed, and this matter is remanded. We are mindful in this regard of the State's argument that a condition of probation is not necessarily invalid merely because it restricts a probationer's ability to exercise constitutionally protected rights. See Young v. State, 286 Ark. 413, 692 S.W.2d 752 (1985). The State also urges that the exile condition is not unduly restrictive of Reeves's liberty. See Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-303(c)(10) (Repl.1997). Finally, the State argues that exile is reasonably related to the stalking crime and future criminality. See Young v. State, supra . We are not persuaded by the State's arguments. We view this situation as altogether different from the prohibition against nude dancing which was a condition of the appellant's suspended sentence in Young v. State, supra , and which the appellant argued impinged upon her freedom of expression. In the case at hand, the public policy of this state is set forth clearly, emphatically, and unmistakably in our state constitution, and exiles such as we have before us are expressly prohibited. What remains for this court to decide are the instructions to the trial court upon remand. The State urges that in the event of reversal, this case must go back to the trial court for complete resentencing pursuant to the guilty plea. We agree with the State that the guilty plea should remain in place. We disagree, however, that resentencing in toto is required. The State cites us to Meadows v. State, 324 Ark. 505, 922 S.W.2d 341 (1996), for the proposition that complete resentencing is necessary. In the first Meadows appeal, we remanded the matter for resentencing because the trial court suspended execution of the sentence rather than imposition of the sentence. At resentencing, the trial court increased the years of imprisonment and the term of the subsequent suspended sentence. The defendant argued on appeal that the trial court was limited to substituting imposition for execution and that the court could not increase his sentence. We affirmed for three reasons: (1) defense counsel agreed that resentencing, following the hearing, could be based on the full range of punishment; (2) a sentence is an indivisible totality; and (3) the remand was for resentencing and not for the limited purpose of substituting imposition for execution. In the instant case, Reeves has never acceded to complete resentencing but has only urged the elimination of the exile condition. In addition, we are dealing here with a valid sentence of seven years' probation with that probation being subject to three conditions. One of those conditions is illegal, but the other two dealing with mental health counseling and prohibition against any contact with the victim or the victim's family are proper. Modifying a condition of probation is specifically contemplated under § 5-4-306(b), and in this case the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to strike the illegal condition. Under these circumstances, we do not view Meadows v. State, supra , as controlling. We remand this matter with instructions to strike the exile condition of probation. The trial court, of course, may impose additional conditions of probation, fines, or confinement in a local facility during the period of probation as authorized by Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-306(b) (Supp.1999). Reversed and remanded.