Opinion ID: 852913
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Amendment to Penalty Statute

Text: The defendant alternatively contends that either (a) the trial court's penalty phase preliminary Instruction No. 8, informing the jury that the judge must follow their recommendation, retroactively applied a statutory amendment contrary to the provisions of the constitutions of the United States and Indiana that prohibit ex post facto laws, or (b) the trial court's subsequent decision to consider the jury recommendation only as advisory, retaining in the trial court the power to make the final sentencing determination, but denying the defense's motion for a continuance, improperly prevented the defendant from presenting mitigating evidence at the sentencing hearing before the trial court. The defendant requests a new sentencing hearing. The defendant was convicted of murders committed on April 18, 2001. The charges were filed on April 20, 2001. The guilt phase of the trial commenced June 14, 2002, resulting in guilty verdicts on June 21, 2002. The penalty phase began and concluded on June 24, 2002, resulting in the jury's recommendation of life imprisonment without parole. On that same day, the trial court ordered the probation department to prepare and file a pre-sentence investigation report by July 12, 2002, and set sentencing for July 19, 2002. Appellant's Appendix at 18-19. At the sentencing hearing, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. At the time the offenses were committed, Indiana's statute governing the imposition of life without parole and the death penalty provided that the jury would make a sentencing recommendation, but that the trial court was assigned the responsibility for determining the sentence and it was not bound by the jury's recommendation. Ind.Code § 35-50-2-9 (2001). On March 26, 2002, the legislature amended the statute [f]or a defendant sentenced after June 30, 2002, and declared: If the jury reaches a sentencing recommendation, the court shall sentence the defendant accordingly. Ind.Code § 35-50-2-9(e). Thus the offenses were committed before the legislature passed the amendment and the guilt and penalty phases of the trial occurred after passage but before the effective date of the amendment. At the penalty phase six days before the effective date of the statute, however, both preliminary Instruction No. 8 and final Instruction No. 15 informed the jury that the law requires that the judge follow the jury's sentencing recommendation. Appellant's Appendix at 442, 459. The trial court's sentencing occurred three weeks later, after the effective date of the amendment. At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the judge announced that due to some concern about the ex post facto effect of the statutory amendment, he would be treating the jury recommendation as advisory and that this is a matter of discretion with me as to the sentence to be imposed. Transcript vol. 7, p. 60. The defendant's trial counsel immediately requested a continuance to present mitigation evidence, explaining that because of the court's jury instruction that the jury's recommendation would be binding, the defense was not prepared for the presentation of such evidence. The court denied the motion and proceeded to sentence the defendant to life imprisonment without parole, finding that the aggravating circumstance was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, finding that mitigating circumstances were present, evaluating the aggravating and mitigating factors, finding the mitigating factors were outweighed by the aggravating circumstances, [3] considering the recommendation of the jury, and expressing the personal conclusion of this [c]ourt that the jury's sentencing recommendation is appropriate punishment for this offender and these heinous crimes. Transcript vol. 7, p. 64-66. On June 24, 2002, when the penalty phase jury was given preliminary Instruction No. 8 and final Instruction No. 15, the 2002 penalty statute amendment had not yet taken effect. Arguing that its retroactive application violated the prohibition on ex post facto laws, the defendant contends that the instruction incorrectly informed them of the law applicable to the case. Br. of App. at 24. But he does not assert any resulting harm from the instruction itself. If anything, the instruction increased the jury's sense of personal responsibility regarding the gravity of its decision and thus favored the defendant. See Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 341, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 2646, 86 L.Ed.2d 231, 247 (1985) (recognizing the extreme importance that a capital sentencing jury recognizes the gravity of its task and proceeds with the appropriate awareness of its `truly awesome responsibility.') Thus, even if we assume arguendo that the instruction was erroneous either because the 2002 amendment was not yet effective on the date it was given, or because of the defendant's ex post facto claim, the giving of the instruction did not harm the defendant and therefore does not compel reversal. As to the defendant's claim that the trial court improperly denied his motion for continuance to present mitigating evidence at the trial court's sentencing proceedings, the defendant cannot prevail unless application of the 2002 amendment is found to violate the Ex Post Facto Clause. If there is no violation and the amendment was applicable, the trial court was obligated to impose the life without parole sentence recommended by the jury and the court's independent sentencing determination was extraneous. The actual sentencing occurred after the effective date of the statutory amendment, and the trial court was thus required, upon receiving the jury sentencing recommendation, to sentence the defendant accordingly, instead of engaging in the pre-amendment independent judicial sentencing evaluation and determination. Ind.Code § 35-50-2-9(e). Because the trial court stated at the time of the penalty phase jury proceedings that it was required to follow the jury's sentencing recommendation, the defendant was on notice that such jury proceedings constituted the defendant's opportunity to present evidence of mitigating circumstances. The defendant therefore suffered no harm by being precluded from presenting additional mitigating evidence to the trial judge following the return of the jury's recommendation. Whether the denial of the defendant's continuance motion precluded his right to present mitigating evidence to the trial judge at sentencing therefore depends upon resolution of the defendant's contention that application of the amended penalty statute violated Article I, § 10 of the Constitution of the United States, which provides in part: No State shall ... pass any ... ex post facto Law. [4] Citing Kring v. Missouri, 107 U.S. 221, 2 S.Ct. 443, 27 L.Ed. 506 (1883), the defendant argues that the 2002 amendment to the penalty statute is an ex post facto law because it was passed after the crimes were committed and deprived him of consideration by the trial judge for the possible imposition of a sentence less severe than that recommended by his jury consideration to which he would have entitled under the penalty statute before the 2002 amendment. In Kring, the defendant challenged a provision in the Missouri Constitution that took effect after the charged murder, and that abrogated prior Missouri law under which Kring's previously accepted plea of guilty to second degree murder precluded his being retried for first degree murder. According to the Supreme Court, the question was whether the new state constitutional provision deprive[d] the defendant of any right of defense which the law gave him when the act was committed, so that as to that offense it [was] ex post facto. Kring, 107 U.S. at 225, 2 S.Ct. at 447, 27 L.Ed. at 507. The Court reversed a defendant's death sentence on grounds that it was imposed under an ex post facto law, and stated: We are of [the] opinion that any law passed after the commission of an offense which ... in relation to that offense, or its consequences, alters the situation of a party to his disadvantage, is an ex post facto law; and ... [n]o one can be criminally punished in this country, except according to a law prescribed for his government by the sovereign authority before the imputed offense was committed, and which existed as a law at the time. 107 U.S. at 235, 2 S.Ct. at 455, 27 L.Ed. at 511 (internal quotations and citations omitted, emphasis added). In 1990, however, the Supreme Court expressly overruled Kring, declaring that its alters the situation of a party to his disadvantage language departs from the meaning of the Clause as it was understood at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 50, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 2723, 111 L.Ed.2d 30, 44 (1990). Even before Youngblood, various opinions of the Supreme Court had declined to find an ex post facto violation in statutes that arguably altered the situation of a party to his disadvantage. For example, in Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167, 46 S.Ct. 68, 70 L.Ed. 216 (1925), the Court refused to reverse an embezzlement conviction where the joint defendants' motions for separate trials was denied based on an Ohio statute that made the granting of separate trials discretionary. Enacted after the date of the charged offense, this statute amended prior law under which Beazell would have been entitled to a separate trial as a matter of right. Rejecting a claim of ex post facto, the Court stated: [I]t is now well settled that statutory changes in the mode of trial or the rules of evidence, which do not deprive the accused of a defense and which operate only in a limited and unsubstantial manner to his disadvantage, are not prohibited. 269 U.S. at 170, 46 S.Ct. at 69, 70 L.Ed. at 218. The Court explained: Just what alterations of procedure will be held to be of sufficient moment to transgress the constitutional prohibition cannot be embraced within a formula or stated in a general proposition. The distinction is one of degree. But the constitutional provision was intended to secure substantial personal rights against arbitrary and oppressive legislation, and not to limit the legislative control of remedies and modes of procedure which do not affect matters of substance. 269 U.S. at 171, 46 S.Ct. at 69, 70 L.Ed. at 218 (citations omitted). Of particular significance is Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977), in which the United States Supreme Court faced an ex post facto claim that addressed a change in the function of judge and jury in the imposition of death sentences in Florida between the time of the charged acts and the time of trial. As of the date of the offenses, Florida law provided that a person convicted of a capital felony was to be punished by death unless the verdict included a recommendation of mercy by a majority of the jury. By the time of trial, Florida had enacted a new death penalty procedure under which the death sentence would be discretionary with the trial judge after separate sentencing hearings before jury and the court, and upon receiving a non-binding recommendation from a majority of the jury. Dobbert argued that the change in the role of the judge and jury between the time of the murder and the time of trial constituted an ex post facto violation. The Court rejected this argument, noting [e]ven though it may work to the disadvantage of a defendant, a procedural change is not ex post facto. 432 U.S. at 293, 97 S.Ct. at 2298, 53 L.Ed.2d at 356. In the case at hand, the Court stated, the change in the statute was clearly procedural. The new statute simply altered the methods employed in determining whether the death penalty was to be imposed; there was no change in the quantum of punishment attached to the crime. 432 U.S. at 293-94, 97 S.Ct. at 2298, 53 L.Ed.2d at 356. [5] The United States Supreme Court recently revisited and extensively explored the prohibition against ex post facto laws in Stogner v. California, 539 U.S. 607, 123 S.Ct. 2446, 156 L.Ed.2d 544 (2003). The opinion endorses the categorical description of ex post facto laws set forth by Justice Chase more than 200 years ago in Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386, 3 Dall. 386, 390-91, 1 L.Ed. 648, 650 (1798), noting that it continues to provid[e] an authoritative account of the scope of the Ex Post Facto Clause. Stogner, 539 U.S. at ___, 123 S.Ct. at 2450, 156 L.Ed.2d at 552. Justice Chase wrote: I will state what laws I consider ex post facto laws, within the words and the intent of the prohibition. 1st. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action. 2d. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed. 3d. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. 4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence, in order to convict the offender. All these, and similar laws, are manifestly unjust and oppressive. Calder, 3 U.S. 386, 3 Dall. at 390-91, 1 L.Ed. at 650 (quoted in Stogner, 539 U.S. at___, 123 S.Ct. at 2450, 156 L.Ed.2d at 552). In Stogner, the Court invalidated as an ex post facto law a 1993 California criminal statute extending a three-year statute of limitations in certain sex-related child abuse cases. Stogner had been charged under the new law for offenses committed between 1955 and 1973. The Court held that the change in the applicable statute of limitations falls within Justice Chase's second category of ex post facto laws. 539 U.S. at___, 123 S.Ct. at 2461, 156 L.Ed.2d at 565. The 2002 amendment to the Indiana penalty statute reassigns from the trial judge to the jury the final decision on whether the charged aggravating circumstance or circumstances have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, whether any mitigating circumstances that exist are outweighed by the aggravating circumstance(s), and whether to impose a sentence of death or life imprisonment without parole. We find that the nature of the challenged legislative change is equivalent to that which Dobbert concluded did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause because it was merely procedural and did not change the quantum of punishment attached to the crime. This change in procedure does not implicate any of Justice Chase's categories of ex post facto laws. It does not criminalize conduct done before enactment. It does not make the crime greater than when committed. It does not increase the punishment. It does not alter the evidence required to convict. Because the 2002 amendment to the penalty statute does not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause, the trial court was required to sentence the defendant in accordance with the jury's recommendation of life imprisonment without parole, regardless of any additional evidence that might have been presented at the judicial sentencing hearing following a continuance. The defendant was thus not harmed by the trial court's denial of his motion for a continuance of the final sentencing hearing.