Opinion ID: 1293641
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Constitutionality of HCA after Apprendi

Text: The defendant argues his constitutional rights were violated at sentencing when the court tripled his sentence pursuant to the HCA based on his prior convictions which were not included in the complaint, presented to the jury, or proven beyond a reasonable doubt based on Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435, 120 S. Ct. 2348 (2000). The constitutionality of the HCA involves a question of law over which this court has unlimited review. State v. Ivory, 273 Kan. 44, 46, 41 P.3d 781 (2001). In Ivory, this court found that Apprendi does not apply where the sentence imposed was based in part on the defendant's criminal history score under the KSGA: The KSGA builds criminal history into the calculation of a presumptive sentence, rather than using criminal history as an enhancement. The determination of a felony sentence is based on two factors: the current crime of conviction and the offender's prior criminal history. The sentence contained in the grid box at the juncture of the severity level of the crime of conviction and the offender's criminal history category is the presumed sentence. [Citations omitted.] In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court said: ` Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.' 530 U.S. at 490. The prior conviction exception was derived from the holding 2 years earlier in Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 140 L. Ed. 2d 350, 118 S. Ct. 1219 (1998). There, the court concluded that the fact of a prior conviction is a sentencing factor and not an element of the crime. Thus, the prior conviction need not be presented in the indictment and proven to a jury in order to be used by the court to increase the sentence imposed. 523 U.S. at 226-27. Ivory, 273 Kan. at 46. As the defendant does in this case, Ivory argued that Apprendi raised serious doubts about the constitutionality of Almendarez-Torres, and we cited several cases from other jurisdictions which held that Apprendi did not overrule Almendarez-Torres. Ivory, 273 Kan. at 46-47. Relevant to this case, we cited the following from United States v. Paycheck-Zepeda, 234 F.3d 411, 414-15 (9th Cir. 2001): `Although Apprendi does refer to the fact that the defendant in Almendarez-Torres did not challenge the accuracy of his prior convictions, nowhere does Apprendi limit Almendarez-Torres to cases where a defendant admits prior aggravated felony convictions on the record. [Citation omitted.] To the contrary, Apprendi held that all prior convictions not just those admitted on the record were exempt from Apprendi's general rule and, under Almendarez-Torres, may continue to be treated as sentencing factors.' (Emphasis added.) Ivory, 273 Kan. at 47. The defendant distinguishes the KSGA from the HCA where the indeterminate sentencing provisions did not require criminal history to be taken into account at sentencing but were only considered upon motion of the prosecuting attorney. See K.S.A. 1982 Supp. 21-4501; K.S.A. 1982 Supp. 21-4504. He argues criminal history is not mechanically applied to compute an offender's sentence under the HCA but is used to enhance the maximum sentence under indeterminate sentencing. He argues that the United States Supreme Court would now decide Almendarez-Torres differently based on Apprendi. However, the defendant's argument fails in light of the following recent cases. In Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 159 L. Ed. 2d 403, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004), the United States Supreme Court held that the state trial court's sentencing of the defendant to more than 3 years above the 53-month statutory maximum of the standard range for his offense, on the basis of the sentencing judge's finding that the defendant acted with deliberate cruelty, violated his Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. In so finding, the majority identified its analysis as an application of the Apprendi rule: Other than the fact of a prior conviction . . . and concluded that the `statutory maximum' for Apprendi purposes is the maximum sentence a judge may impose solely on the basis of the facts reflected in the jury verdict or admitted by the defendant.  159 L. Ed. 2d at 412-13. In United States v. Booker, ___ U.S. ___, 160 L. Ed. 2d 621, 125 S. Ct. 738 (2005), the Court applied the principles of Apprendi and Blakely to the mandatory provisions of the federal sentencing guidelines and found them unconstitutional as far as they required judges to find facts by a preponderance of the evidence for the imposition of aggravated sentences. To remedy the constitutional infirmity created by applying judge-found facts to the guidelines, the Court severed the provision of the federal sentencing statute that made application of the guidelines mandatory. However, the Court specifically reaffirmed its holding in Apprendi : Any fact ( other than a prior conviction ) which is necessary to support a sentence exceeding the maximum authorized by the facts established by a plea of guilty or a jury verdict must be admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. (Emphasis added.) 160 L. Ed. 2d at 650. In State v. Shepard, ___ U.S. ___, 161 L. Ed. 2d 205, 125 S. Ct. 1254 (2005), the Supreme Court held that a trial court may not look to police reports or complaint applications of a prior plea to determine if the prior conviction constituted a violent felony so as to be used to enhance a sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act, see 18 U.S.C. § 924 (2000), but it may examine the statutory definition, charging document, written plea agreement, transcript of plea colloquy, and any explicit factual finding by the trial judge to which the defendant assented. The Court reasoned in part that while the disputed fact may be described as a fact about a prior conviction, it is far too removed from the conclusive significance of a prior judicial record, and too much like the findings subject to Jones and Apprendi, to say that Almendarez-Torres clearly authorizes a judge to resolve the dispute. 161 L. Ed. 2d at 217. In a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas opined:  Almendarez-Torres, like Taylor, has been eroded by this Court's subsequent Sixth Amendment jurisprudence, and a majority of the Court now recognizes that Almendarez-Torres was wrongly decided. [Citations omitted.] The parties do not request it here, but in an appropriate case, this Court should consider Almendarez-Torres continuing viability. 161 L. Ed. 2d at 219 (Thomas, J., concurring). Since Blakely, Booker, and Shephard were decided, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has repeatedly rejected arguments such as those raised by the defendant in this case questioning whether a prior conviction may continue to be a judicially recognized fact under Almendarez-Torres. See United States v. Williams, 403 F.3d 1188, 1198 (10th Cir. 2005) (for purposes of sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act provisions of § 924, the government need not charge the fact of a prior conviction in an indictment and submit it to a jury after Booker, Blakely, & Shephard ); United States v. Gonzalez-Huerta, 403 F.3d 727, 731 n.1 (10th Cir. 2005) ([T]he holding in Booker envisions Almendarez-Torres as good law . . . . We believe that any reconsideration of Almendarez-Torres must be conducted by the Supreme Court.); United States v. Moore, 401 F.3d 1220, 1224 (10th Cir. 2005) (Although the Court may overrule Almendarez-Torres at some point in the future, it has not done so, we will not presume to do so for the Court, and we are bound by existing precedent to hold that the Almendarez-Torres exception to the rule announced in Apprendi and extended to the [federal] Guidelines in Booker remains good law.); see also United States v. Aguirre-Leon, 2005 WL 806700,  n.1 (D. Kan. 2005) (unpublished opinion filed April 7, 2005) (applying Moore in holding Almendarez-Torres remains good law after Booker ); Lopez v. People, 113 P.3d 713, 723 (Colo. 2005) (Although there is some doubt about the continued vitality of the prior conviction exception, we conclude that it remains valid after Blakely. ). Regardless of whether the prior convictions are built into the criminal history score under the KSGA or used on motion of the prosecutor under the HCA, the prior convictions enhance the defendant's sentence beyond what he would have received in the absence of those prior convictions. Booker, Blakely, Apprendi, Williams, Gonzalez-Huerta, Moore, Aguirre-Leon, Lopez, and Ivory, all provide the fact of a prior conviction does not have to be submitted to a jury to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The HCA scheme requires that the district court find competent evidence of the prior convictions, and due process requires the State to prove the existence of the prior convictions in every essential particular, unless admitted by the defendant, before the prior convictions can be used to enhance a sentence. Jones, 272 Kan. at 677. The fact that the State did not have to prove the prior convictions beyond a reasonable doubt does not make the use of the prior convictions violative of due process. Where substantial competent evidence does not establish the prior convictions, as discussed above, the district court is without authority to use them at sentencing under the HCA. As stated in by this court in Ivory : Counsel has not cited a case nor has our research discovered one extending Apprendi to hold that increasing a sentence based on the fact of prior convictions is unconstitutional. 273 Kan. at 47. The use of prior convictions under the HCA is not unconstitutional under Apprendi. Convictions affirmed, sentence vacated, and case remanded for resentencing. GERNON, J., not participating. LARSON, S.J., assigned.