Opinion ID: 1289588
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the appealability of the trial courts' orders conditionally withholding judgment

Text: The initial question presented is whether a defendant who has either pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of committing a crime may appeal as a matter of right from an order withholding judgment but nevertheless imposing criminal sanctions. At the time the appeals were taken, I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) set forth the district court orders from which a defendant in a criminal action may appeal to this Court as a matter of right. It provided: 19-2803. APPEAL BY DEFENDANT.  An appeal may be taken by the defendant: 1. From a final judgment of conviction. 2. From an order denying a motion for new trial. 3. From any order made after judgment, affecting the substantial rights of the party... . [1] These are the same orders from which a defendant before the magistrates division of the district court may appeal to the district court. I.C. § 1-2213; Criminal Appellate Rule 3. The language in Criminal Appellate Rule 3, listing orders appealable from the magistrates division to the district court is identical to the language in I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) listing the orders appealable from the district court to this Court. Therefore, we hold that their meanings are identical and that our construction of the term final judgment of conviction found in I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) is also applicable to that same term in Criminal Appellate Rule 3. The state has argued that the district court order that Wagenius serve thirty days in the county jail as a condition of withheld judgment is not a final judgment under I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977), and therefore not an appealable order. We disagree. An order withholding judgment, but imposing the criminal sanctions of payment of costs or a fine or incarceration, is a de facto judgment of conviction and thus an appealable order under the statute. [2] From the standpoint of the defendant, the payment of costs or a fine or the service of a jail or prison term pursuant to an order withholding judgment is punishment indistinguishable from the payment of costs or fine or the service of a jail or prison term pursuant to a judgment of conviction. To hold that the former order is not appealable because it was given in a document captioned withheld judgment while the latter order is appealable because it was given in a document captioned judgment of conviction would elevate form over substance and would in effect authorize the lower courts to impose punishment based on a finding of guilt which could not be reviewed by appeal. Applying a more reasonable interpretation of the statute, we look at the practical effect of the orders and construe such orders imposing the payment of costs and a fine or incarceration to be final judgments of conviction, regardless of language in the order which states that no judgment has been rendered. Korematsu v. United States, 319 U.S. 432, 63 S.Ct. 1124, 87 L.Ed. 1497 (1943). Cf. Franklin v. State, 87 Idaho 291, 392 P.2d 552 (1964); State v. McNichols, 62 Idaho 616, 115 P.2d 104 (1941). Therefore, the order issued in No. 11988 withholding judgment but sentencing Wagenius to a jail term, and the order issued in No. 12070 withholding judgment but ordering DeVoe to pay costs and a fine and to serve a jail term, were both final judgments of conviction for purposes of appeal.