Opinion ID: 2613127
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: drug addiction as the basis for an exceptional sentence

Text: The State further contends that the trial court's reasons were not adequate as a matter of law to support an exceptional sentence below the standard range. [1] Whether the reasons supplied by the trial court justify an exceptional sentence is a question of law. State v. Allert, 117 Wn.2d at 163. Those reasons must be substantial and compelling, RCW 9.94A.120(2), and must distinguish the defendant's crime from others in the same category. E.g., State v. Grewe, 117 Wn.2d 211, 216, 813 P.2d 1238 (1991). [2] In the present case, the trial court's grounds for departing from the standard sentence range focus on Gaines's drug addiction and the fact that it was directly related to his crime. This was error. Drug addiction and its causal role in an addict's offense may not serve to justify a durational departure from a standard range sentence. This conclusion is required under our recent decisions in State v. Allert, supra , and State v. Hutsell, 120 Wn.2d 913, 845 P.2d 1325 (1993). In Allert, the defendant had been convicted of two counts of armed robbery and had received an exceptional sentence below the standard sentence range. 117 Wn.2d at 158. We upheld the trial court's findings that the defendant suffered from depression, severe compulsive personality, and alcoholism, and that the combined effect of these conditions impaired the defendant's ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. 117 Wn.2d at 166. Nonetheless, we held that these findings were inadequate to support use of the mitigating factor defined in RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e), which provides: The defendant's capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, was significantly impaired (voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is excluded). We explained that intoxication by an alcoholic qualifies as voluntary intoxication under RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e), and that because the record failed to show that absent alcoholism the defendant's depression and severe compulsive personality would have caused the same cognitive impairment, the finding that the combined effect of all three conditions had caused the impairment was insufficient to justify the exceptional sentence. 117 Wn.2d at 166-67. Allert thus prohibits alcoholism to be relied upon as a causal factor under RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e). In Hutsell, the trial court had imposed an exceptional sentence under RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e) based on the consideration that the defendant was an addict whose drug use diminished his ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions. We held that RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e) excludes consideration of the unforced, and not fraudulently induced, use of drugs or alcohol as a mitigating factor, regardless of whether the defendant suffers from drug addiction. In so holding, we limited consideration of drug use as a mitigating factor under RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e) to only those circumstances in which the use might have formed the basis for a defense, that is, to those circumstances when the defendant's intoxication at the time of the offense was induced by fraud or force. Although Allert and Hutsell focus on alcoholism and drug addiction as mitigating factors under RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e), consistency with these decisions requires disallowing substance abuse as a nonstatutory mitigating factor as well. In other words, because substance abuse may not serve as a mitigating factor pursuant to the diminished capacity provision stated in RCW 9.94A.390(1)(e), neither may it serve as a nonstatutory mitigating factor. Attempting to avoid this conclusion, Gaines relies on State v. Bernhard, 108 Wn.2d 527, 741 P.2d 1 (1987), overruled in part in State v. Shove, 113 Wn.2d 83, 776 P.2d 132 (1989). Bernhard was convicted of second degree burglary. His standard sentence range was 4 to 12 months, but the trial court imposed an exceptional sentence of 12 months' confinement in a drug treatment program based on the finding that the crime was a direct result of his drug addiction. Under RCW 9.94A.383, drug treatment may be required as a condition of community supervision, but only for first-time offenders. Bernhard, at 531. Because Bernhard was a repeat offender, the trial court could not include drug treatment as a condition of a standard community supervision sentence under RCW 9.94A.383. Bernhard, at 531. The primary issue before us in Bernhard was whether there was some other authority for the trial court to require drug treatment. We held there was and declared that the trial court's standard sentencing authority allows it to select the place of confinement for persons sentenced to 1 year or less. Bernard, at 535. This includes the power to select a drug treatment facility. Bernhard, at 535. We further held that the exceptional sentence provision, RCW 9.94A.120(2), empowers trial courts to impose sentence conditions outside of those allowed under the standard sentence. Applying this to Bernhard's case, we held that the fact Bernhard's addiction was the direct cause of the crime justified the trial court in imposing drug treatment as an exceptional condition. Bernhard, at 543-44. [3] Gaines interprets Bernhard as standing for the broad proposition that a defendant's addiction may justify an exceptional sentence if there is evidence that the addiction was a direct cause of his criminal conduct. We reject such a broad interpretation. Bernhard's standard range sentence was for 4 to 12 months; the trial court imposed an exceptional sentence of 12 months. Hence what was exceptional about the sentence imposed in Bernhard was not the length of the sentence, but rather the place of confinement. Drug treatment was available as a condition of community supervision under RCW 9.94A.383, but only for first-time offenders, which Bernhard was not. Thus Bernhard stands only for the proposition that when a defendant's drug addiction is the direct cause of the offense, that fact may serve as justification not for a departure from the standard sentence range, but for imposing drug treatment as an exceptional condition of a community supervision sentence under RCW 9.94A.383. In summary, we hold that drug addiction and its causal role in an addict's criminal offense may not properly serve as justification for a durational departure from the standard range. Therefore, the fact that Gaines's drug addiction was directly related to his offense cannot be relied upon to justify a durational departure from the standard sentence range for his offense. [4] The trial court also relied upon Gaines's minor role in the offense and RCW 9.94A.390(1)(f) as justification for the exceptional sentence below the standard sentence range. An exceptional sentence may be upheld on appeal even where all but one of the trial court's reasons for the sentence have been overturned. E.g., State v. Harding, 62 Wn. App. 245, 813 P.2d 1259 (exceptional sentence upheld where two of three aggravating factors invalidated), review denied, 118 Wn.2d 1003 (1991). However, remand for resentencing is necessary where it is not clear whether the trial court would have imposed an exceptional sentence on the basis of only the one factor upheld. See, e.g., State v. Henshaw, 62 Wn. App. 135, 140, 813 P.2d 146 (1991) (remand is necessary where sentencing court placed considerable weight on invalid factors, even if other factors were valid). Here, the trial court's reasons for imposing the exceptional sentence were clearly based on considerations about Gaines's drug addiction. The court mentions Gaines's minor role in the offense only as incidental support for the durational departure. It is thus not clear whether the trial court would have imposed the exceptional sentence on the basis of only Gaines's minor role in the offense. We therefore remand for resentencing. On remand, the trial court must reconsider Gaines's role in the offense and whether it alone justifies a durational departure. If the trial court determines that it does, and if the court imposes a sentence of 1 year or less, the court may then proceed to rely upon Gaines's drug addiction and its relationship to his offense as justification for imposing the exceptional condition of drug treatment as a part of Gaines's community supervision sentence under RCW 9.94A.383. Finally, we comment upon the Court of Appeals' analysis of the question whether the trial court's reasons were legally sufficient to justify the exceptional sentence. The trial court reasoned in part that because Gaines's drug addiction was directly related to his crime, the SRA's goals of rehabilitation of criminals and protecting the public would be better served by requiring Gaines to undergo drug treatment. See RCW 9.94A.010 (stating goals of the SRA). The Court of Appeals approved of this reasoning. State v. Gaines, 65 Wn. App. 790, 800-01, 830 P.2d 367 (1992). We do not. [5, 6] As we explained in State v. Allert, 117 Wn.2d 156, 169, 815 P.2d 752 (1991), [t]he SRA was designed to provide proportionate punishment, protect the public and provide rehabilitation, and the presumptive ranges established for each crime represent the Legislature's judgment as to how best to accommodate those interests. For this reason a sentencing court's determination that a standard range term would not advance rehabilitative goals or would not protect the public is not adequate to justify departure from the normal sentence range. Allert, 117 Wn.2d at 169 (citing State v. Pascal, 108 Wn.2d 125, 137, 736 P.2d 1065 (1987)). Therefore, the trial court's determination here that a standard range sentence would not rehabilitate Gaines or adequately protect the public does not justify an exceptional sentence. [7] The opinion of the Court of Appeals might suggest that if the length of an exceptional sentence is nearly equal to the length of the standard range, then the exceptional sentence is justified. Gaines, at 797-99. It is true that the first statutorily enumerated purpose of the SRA is to [e]nsure that the punishment for a criminal offense is proportionate to the seriousness of the offense and the offender's criminal history. RCW 9.94A.010. It is also true that the reasons for an exceptional sentence are legally adequate to justify it only if they are consistent with this purpose. State v. Estrella, 115 Wn.2d 350, 357, 798 P.2d 289 (1990). However, the comparative length of the exceptional sentence and the standard range sentence is irrelevant to the basic question that must be addressed regarding any exceptional sentence: are there substantial and compelling reasons to justify a departure  any departure  from the normal sentence range. RCW 9.94A.120(2). If a departure from the standard range is justified, then the reviewing court may proceed to consider whether the exceptional sentence is clearly excessive or clearly too lenient, as required under RCW 9.94A.210(4)(b). At that stage in the inquiry considerations about the comparative length of the standard range sentence and the exceptional sentence may appropriately arise. The fact that an exceptional sentence is nearly as long as the standard range sentence is not alone sufficient, however, to justify a durational departure.