Opinion ID: 2336583
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Instruction on Prior Offenses

Text: Riels argues that the instruction to the jury that aggravated robbery was a felony whose elements involved the use of violence was unconstitutional under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). At the time of the trial in this case, this issue had not yet been resolved by this Court. Since that time, we have held that the determination of whether the statutory elements of a felony involve the use of violence to the person is a legal determination for the trial court. See State v. Cole, 155 S.W.3d 885, 899-905 (Tenn.2005). More recently, we interpreted the holding in Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005), to impose a limit on the trial court such that it may only consider the statutory definition of the offense, the charging document, the written plea agreement, the transcript of the plea colloquy, and any explicit factual findings by the trial judge to which the defendant assented. See State v. Ivy, 188 S.W.3d 132, 151 (Tenn.2006). Although the issue is moot on appeal, it appears that the trial court based its instruction on the indictments and judgments from the prior convictions, and therefore such instruction would not have been in error.