Opinion ID: 1289588
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the imposition of sanctions without entry of a formal judgment of conviction

Text: The orders involved in these two cases were not judgments of conviction, but by their express terms were orders withholding judgment and promising the eventual dismissal of the case on the condition that the defendant comply with the terms of the orders. The order involved in No. 12070, State v. DeVoe, must be set aside, as we rule in Part II of this opinion, because the conviction upon which the order was based cannot be sustained. Nevertheless, No. 11988, State v. Wagenius, presents the issue whether the trial courts may impose penal sanctions as conditions of such withheld judgments. Our inquiry commences with I.C. § 19-101 which provides: 19-101. LEGAL CONVICTION NECESSARY TO PUNISHMENT.  No person can be punished for a public offense except upon a legal conviction in a court having jurisdiction thereof. This statute was first enacted by the Idaho Territorial Legislature as part of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864. 1864 Idaho Sess. Laws, ch. 2, § 5, at 234. In that act the legislature first set forth the fundamental principles of criminal procedure in this state. I.C. § 18-109, also first enacted as part of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864, 1864 Idaho Sess. Laws, ch. 2, § 1, at 234, indicates the sanctions the legislature considered to be criminal punishment and which could not properly be imposed except upon a legal conviction: 18-109. DEFINITION OF CRIME.  A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which is annexed, upon conviction, either of the following punishments: 1. Death. 2. Imprisonment. 3. Fine. 4. Removal from office; or 5. Disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit in this state. Reading § 19-101 together with its companion, § 18-109, it is apparent that the legislature intended that neither death, imprisonment, fine nor removal or disqualification from office be imposed as punishment for a crime without there first being a legal conviction of that crime. We must decide whether I.C. § 19-101 prohibits the courts from imposing the criminal sanctions listed in I.C. § 18-109 when a court has not entered a judgment of conviction, but has withheld it pursuant to I.C. § 19-2601. The word conviction is susceptible to two meanings  an ordinary or popular meaning which refers to the finding of guilt by plea or verdict, and a more technical meaning which refers to the final judgment entered on a plea or verdict of guilty. Vasquez v. Courtney, 272 Or. 477, 537 P.2d 536 (1975); State v. Hanna, 179 N.W.2d 503 (Iowa 1970). In the latter case conviction has not occurred until the judgment is entered by the court. In State v. O'Dell, 71 Idaho 64, 225 P.2d 1020 (1950), we stated: `Convicted' as ordinarily used in legal phraseology as indicating a particular phase of a criminal prosecution, includes the establishing of guilt whether by accused's admission in open court by plea of guilty to the charges presented, or by a verdict or finding of a court or jury. In a more technical, legal sense, conviction means the final conclusion of the prosecution against the accused, including the judgment and sentence rendered pursuant to a verdict or plea of guilty, and it is frequently used to denote the judgment or sentence. [Citations omitted]. A person, after plea of guilty or verdict, has been convicted when the court decrees that he is guilty. Id. at 68, 225 P.2d at 1022. The definition to be applied is not always uniform, but varies with the particular law or statute under consideration. Summerour v. Cartrett, 220 Ga. 31, 136 S.E.2d 724 (1964). Our prior decisions have not been totally consistent and, for that matter, neither has the legislation upon which they were based. In Ex parte Medley, 73 Idaho 474, 253 P.2d 794 (1953), we stated: The statute [I.C. § 19-2601, authorizing the withholding of judgment] does not require that the court must first adjudicate the guilt of defendant. The obvious and commendable objective of the Act which seeks in a proper case to avoid the stigma of a judgment of conviction would be in major part defeated if the contention of petitioner is accepted. To withhold judgment after a plea of guilty protects the defendant at that time against the stigma of a conviction which may be forever avoided should the defendant conform to its terms and conditions. This creates, and rightfully so, a hope in the heart of the accused that he may ultimately be released under an order of probation without the stigma of a judgment of conviction. This is an incentive for complete rehabilitation and reform, one of the salutary objectives of the Act. Id. at 479, 253 P.2d at 797. (Emphasis added). We ruled in State v. Cliett, 96 Idaho 646, 534 P.2d 476 (1975), that a withheld judgment is not a conviction under I.C. § 9-1209, which permits impeachment by proof of a felony conviction. We concluded in Cliett that [w]here judgment has been withheld, as authorized by I.C. § 19-2601, judgment has not been entered; and it follows that there is no valid conviction which can be used for impeachment. See State v. Barwick, [94 Idaho 139, 483 P.2d 670 (1971)]. 96 Idaho at 649, 534 P.2d at 479. However, in State v. Chauncey, 97 Idaho 756, 554 P.2d 934 (1976), we held that for purposes of I.C. § 18-308, which provides for consecutive sentences [w]hen any person is convicted of two (2) or more crimes before sentence has been imposed upon him for either ..., conviction occurs when the defendant pleads guilty and that plea is accepted by the court. Accord, State v. Lawrence, 98 Idaho 399, 565 P.2d 989 (1977). Cf. United States v. Locke, 409 F. Supp. 600 (D.Idaho 1976) (holding that a defendant subject to an Idaho District Court order conditionally withholding a judgment of conviction of burglary had been convicted of a felony for purposes of a federal statute prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms) aff'd 542 F.2d 800 (9th Cir.1976). In the earlier case of Franklin v. State, 87 Idaho 291, 392 P.2d 552 (1964), a plurality opinion joined only by two members of the Court concluded that incarceration could not be imposed as a condition of a withheld sentence and probation. However, that opinion appeared to be based upon an interpretation of I.C. § 19-2601, rather than I.C. §§ 19-101 and 18-109. The opening sentence of I.C. § 19-2601 seems to contemplate that a conviction is a determination of guilt rather than a judgment or sentence: Whenever any person shall have been convicted, or enter a plea of guilty . . the court in its discretion, may: ..... 3. Withhold judgment on such terms... . Other statutes, although not models of clarity, tend to support this view. I.C. § 19-2305, which pertains to forms of general verdicts, provides that a verdict of guilty imports a conviction. I.C. § 19-2314, which pertains to the reconsideration of a verdict, refers to a verdict of conviction. I.C. § 19-2706 requires the court at which a conviction for murder is had [to forward the governor] a statement of the conviction and judgment, and of the testimony given at trial. These latter two statutes were also part of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864 which also included I.C. §§ 19-101 and 18-109. 1864 Idaho Sess. Laws, ch. 2, §§ 1, 5, 413-14 at 234 and 288. We conclude that for purposes of I.C. § 19-101 conviction occurs when a verdict or plea of guilty is accepted by the court. Accordingly, where a verdict or plea of guilty has been accepted by the court but judgment on that plea or verdict has been withheld, § 19-101 does not preclude the imposition of criminal punishment, fines and imprisonment, as conditions of that withheld judgment. But neither does § 19-101 authorize the imposition of criminal sanctions as a term of withheld judgments. For such authorization we must look to § 19-2601 which provides: 19-2601. COMMUTATION, SUSPENSION, WITHHOLDING OF SENTENCE  PROBATION.  Whenever any person shall have been convicted, or enter a plea of guilty, in any district court of the state of Idaho, of or to any crime against the laws of the state, except those of treason or murder, the court in its discretion, may: 1. Commute the sentence ...; or 2. Suspend the execution of judgment ... and place the defendant on probation under such terms and conditions as it deems necessary and expedient; or 3. Withhold judgment on such terms and for such time as it may prescribe and may place the defendant on probation; or 4. Suspend the execution of the judgment at any time during the first one hundred and twenty (120) days of a sentence to the custody of the state board of correction ... and place the defendant on probation under such terms and conditions as it deems necessary and expedient... . 5. If the crime involved is a felony and if judgment is withheld as provided in 3 above or if judgment and a sentence of custody to the state board of correction is suspended at the time of judgment in accordance with 2 above or as provided by 4 above and the court shall place the defendant upon probation, it shall be to the board of correction. 6. If the crime involved is a misdemeanor, indictable or otherwise, or if the court should suspend any remaining portion of a jail sentence already commuted in accordance with 1 above, the court, if it grants probation, may place the defendant on probation... . The question raised is whether subsection 3, which provides that the court may withhold judgment on such terms and for such time as it may prescribe and may place the defendant on probation authorizes a trial court to impose punishment, fines or imprisonment, assess costs and require restitution as conditions of a withheld judgment. In dicta we previously considered this issue in Franklin v. State, supra . Because of the differences in the four separate opinions contained therein, that case is of limited guidance. [3] In State v. Bassett, 86 Idaho 277, 385 P.2d 246 (1963), and State v. Sandoval, 92 Idaho 853, 452 P.2d 350 (1969), we considered sentences which had been suspended and the defendant placed on probation as authorized by § 19-2601(2), with imprisonment a condition of that probation and suspended sentence. Though we did not directly address the issue whether imprisonment may be imposed as a condition of a sentence suspended under § 19-2601(2), the authority to do so was not contested in those appeals. We see no reason why the terms which the court may prescribe as conditions of a withheld judgment pursuant to subsection 3 should be more limited than the terms which the court may prescribe as conditions of a suspended sentence and judgment pursuant to subsection 2, which include fines and imprisonment. Under subsection 2 a judgment is entered but its execution is suspended. Under subsection 3 the judgment is not entered, but withheld. The introductory language in § 19-2601 states: Whenever any person shall have been convicted, or enter a plea of guilty, ... the court in its discretion, may... . It is clear that the sentencing alternatives provided in § 19-2601 become available to the court after a person has been convicted by a verdict of guilty, or a plea of guilty has been entered. [4] Whether judgment has been formally entered does not affect the availability of the sentencing alternatives provided in § 19-2601. However, entry of a judgment is required to implement some of the sentencing alternatives, particularly those provided in subsections 1, 2 and 4. It is apparent from the broad language of § 19-2601 that the legislature intended the courts to have maximum flexibility to fashion the sentence most appropriate to the individual defendant. The statute therefore must be liberally construed. The ability to withhold a judgment and thereby spare the defendant, particularly a first time offender, the burden of a criminal record, and yet, to emphasize the seriousness of the defendant's action by conditioning that withheld judgment on a period of incarceration or payment of a fine is certainly one of the many sentencing alternatives the legislature intended to be available to the courts. Likewise, the payment of court costs [5] and restitution are also proper and often very useful conditions of withheld judgments and probation. Indeed, I.C.R. 32(d), [6] which implements the court's exercise of the authority granted by § 19-2601, specifically lists the payment of court costs, restitution and participation in self-education and rehabilitation programs as among the lawful provisions which may be conditions of withheld judgments and probations.