Court Opinion

ID: 9673523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:14:05.600331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:22.641082
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM A. BABLITCH, J.
¶ 51. (dissenting). On August 28, 1992, John Setagord was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Setagord appealed, and the court of appeals concluded that Wis. Stat. § 973.014 (1991-92)1 clearly and unambiguously did not permit the circuit court to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Setagord's crime. State v. Setagord, 187 Wis. 2d 340, 523 N.W.2d 124 (Ct. App. 1994). Accordingly, the court of appeals reversed the sentence and remanded for resentencing. Upon remand, the circuit court sentenced Setagord to life in *423prison with a parole eligibility date of October 21, 2091 — in effect, a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. By affirming this sentence, the majority elevates form over substance.2 It tells the circuit courts that, if you don't use the words "without possibility of parole," even though that is the effect, we will approve.
¶ 52. In essence, the majority concludes the legislature deliberately intended to create a classic, albeit cynical, "good news, bad news" situation for the defendant when it drafted the mandate "the court shall make a parole eligibility determination ..." Wis. Stat. § 973.014. The good news for the defendant: you're eligible for parole. The bad news: it won't be during your lifetime. I conclude the legislature did not intend Wis. Stat. § 973.014 to be used by the sentencing judge in this manner. Accordingly, I dissent.
¶ 53. When interpreting this statute, one overarching principle must guide the court's analysis — the legislature sets sentencing policy. It is well settled that "the court's sentencing power is derived solely from the statutes and. . .the courts must adhere to statutory limits when fashioning sentences." State v. Sepulveda, 119 Wis. 2d 546, 553, 350 N.W.2d 96 (1984) (footnote omitted). In other words, the sentencing court can only impose a sentence if that sentence is authorized by the legislature. By imposing a sentence not authorized by *424the statute, the circuit court usurps the legislature's authority to set sentencing policy.
f 54. The majority concludes that by its use of the phrase "any later date" in Wis. Stat. § 973.014, the legislature unambiguously granted the circuit court discretion to impose a parole eligibility date far beyond even Methuselah's life expectancy. Apparently, even a parole eligibility date of 4001 or any other year would meet with the consent of the majority. The majority reaches this conclusion by ignoring a basic rule of statutory construction: A phrase must be defined within the context of the statute in which it is used. Pulsfus Farms v. Town of Leeds, 149 Wis. 2d 797, 804, 440 N.W.2d 329 (1989).
¶ 55. Ignoring this rule, the majority analyzes only one part of Wis. Stat. § 973.014:
the court shall make a parole eligibility determination. . .(b). . .Under this subsection, the court may set any later date than that provided in s. 304.06(1).
Majority opinion at 407. However, at the time of Setagord's sentencing, § 973.014, provided:
(1) Except as provided in sub. (2), when a court sentences a person to life imprisonment for a crime committed on or after July 1, 1988, the court shall make a parole eligibility determination regarding the person and choose one of the following options:
(a) The person is eligible for parole under s. 304.06(1).
(b) The person is eligible for parole on a date set by the court. Under this paragraph, the court may set any later date than that provided in s. 304.06(1), but may not set a date that occurs before *425the earliest possible parole eligibility date as calculated under s. 304.06(1).3 (Emphasis added.)
¶ 56. By analyzing just the underlined portion of the statute, without benefit of the context of the entire statute, the majority reaches an erroneous conclusion.
¶ 57. This court recently visited a similar problem of statutory interpretation. In State v. Sweat, 208 Wis. 2d 409, 561 N.W.2d 695 (1997), we interpreted the phrase "any defense available in a civil action" as used in Wis. Stat. § 973.20(14)(b). In that case, we held that "any" when modifying "defense," though unambiguous when standing alone, was ambiguous when read in conjunction with the statute as a whole. Sweat, 208 Wis. 2d 409. See also 2A Norman J. Singer, Sutherland's Statutory Construction § 46.07, p. 153 (5th ed., 1992) (the word "any" has "a diversity of meanings. . .and its meaning in a given statute depends upon the context and the subject matter of the statute") (footnote omitted).
¶ 58. A statutory provision is ambiguous if reasonable minds could differ as to its meaning. Sweat, 208 Wis. 2d at 416. Here, the court concludes that "any" when modifying "later date" is unambiguous. And it is — when standing alone. However, when read in conjunction with other provisions in Wis. Stat. § 973.014, the phrase "any later date" is ambiguous.
¶ 59. One reasonable interpretation of the statute is that rendered by the majority that, essentially, "any later date" means "any later date from here to eternity." Another reasonable interpretation — and an *426interpretation more in harmony with Wis. Stat. § 973.014 as a whole — is that the phrase "any later date" means "any later date, but not life imprisonment without parole because the statute states that the person is eligible for parole on a date set by the court" or "any later date within the average person's life expectancy." Because these interpretations can reasonably be drawn, the reasonable conclusion is that § 973.014 is ambiguous.
¶ 60. When a statute is ambiguous, several rules of statutory construction come into play. In construing Wis. Stat. § 973.014, these rules of construction indicate that the phrase "any later date" is more reasonably interpreted as "any later date within the average person's life expectancy."
¶ 61. First, it is well-established that ambiguous, penal statutes such as Wis. Stat. § 973.014 should be interpreted to the defendant's benefit. In construing federal statutes, the federal courts apply the rule of lenity. Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 83. This court applies a similar concept, stating that "penal statues are generally construed strictly to safeguard defendant's rights." State v. Bohacheff, 114 Wis. 2d 402, 417, 338 N.W.2d 466 (1983) (citation omitted). Thus, as Setagord argues, criminal penalties must be narrowly construed and any ambiguities in a penal statute — including sentencing provisions — must be resolved in favor of the defendant. See Strong v. C.I.R., Inc., 184 Wis. 2d 619, 628, 516 N.W.2d 719 (1994). State v. Christensen, 110 Wis. 2d 538, 546, 329 N.W.2d 382 (1983). See also State v. Morris, 108 Wis. 2d 282, 289, 322 N.W.2d 264 (1982) ("in case of doubt concerning the severity of the penalty prescribed by the statute, the court will favor a milder penalty over a harsher one.. . .'Since it is within the power of the *427lawmakers, the burden lies with them to relieve the situation of all doubts.'") (citation omitted)); 3 Sutherland's Statutory Construction § 59.03 at 103 (" 'It is a well-established principle of statutory construction that. . .the more severe the penalty, and the more disastrous the consequence to the person subjected to the provisions of the statute, the more rigid will be the construction of its provisions in favor of such person and against the enforcement of such law.' ") (footnote omitted).
¶ 62. In sum, the burden lies with the legislature to enact a statute that clearly and unambiguously provides for the most severe criminal punishment available in Wisconsin — a sentence of life in prison without even the possibility of parole, and this statute does not clearly establish such an intent by the legislature.
¶ 63. Another fundamental rule of statutory construction supports this conclusion. Statutes are to be construed to avoid rendering any part of the statute meaningless or superfluous. State v. Achterberg, 201 Wis. 2d 291, 299, 548 N.W.2d 515 (1996). That the majority's interpretation violates this principle is most glaringly illustrated by the interplay of Wis. Stat. §§ 973.014(1)(b) and (2) (1993-94):4 If "any later date" in subsection (l)(b) authorized the imposition of a life sentence with a parole eligibility date far beyond life expectancy, i.e., life in prison without the possibility of parole, why would the legislature have added subsection (2) which specifically authorizes a life sentence *428without parole? Simply put, if the majority's interpretation of subsection (b) is correct, subsection (2) is unnecessary. It is superfluous and meaningless — a result that must be avoided.
¶ 64. A related canon of construction supports the conclusion that "any later date" does not give the circuit court the authority to impose a life sentence without parole: "Where the legislature uses two different phrases.. .in two paragraphs in the same section, it is presumed to have intended the two phrases to have different meanings." Armes v. Kenosha County, 81 Wis. 2d 309, 318, 260 N.W.2d 515 (1977) (footnote omitted). See also Weber v. Town of Saukville, 209 Wis. 2d 214, 231, 562 N.W.2d 412 (1997). Since the legislature has used language in Wis. Stat. § 973.014(1)(c) (1995-96) and Wis. Stat. § 973.014(2) (1993-94) expressly authorizing life without parole sentences, its omission of such language in Wis. Stat. § 973.014(1)(b) ought to be given substantive, meaningful effect. The majority's reading strips the different statutory wordings of any real difference.
¶ 65. This is exactly the point of a recent decision by the Seventh Circuit in an analogous situation. The federal statutes involved in United States v. Martin, 63 F.3d 1422 (7th Cir. 1995), provided that a person guilty of arson, in which death resulted, "shall" be subject to "imprisonment for any term of years, or to the death penalty, or to life imprisonment as provided in § 34 of this title." Id. at 1432. Section 34 provided that a person shall be subject to the "death penalty or to imprisonment for life, if the jury shall in its discretion so direct." Id.
¶ 66. Although the jury had not directed that Martin be sentenced to life in prison, the trial court imposed a term of years far beyond his life expectancy. *429The Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded for resen-tencing, holding that where a legislatively enacted sentencing scheme has expressly deprived a court of the possibility of imposing a life sentence, a sentence for a term of years exceeding the defendant's approximate life expectancy would ordinarily constitute an abuse of discretion. Judge Flaum explained, "If we are to give [the statute] real meaning, a sentencer cannot be permitted to evade the restrictions on one kind of sentence by imposing a substantially identical one with a slightly different name." Martin, 63 F.3d at 1434. See also United States v. Prevatte, 66 F.3d 840, 843-44 (7th Cir. 1995) (Posner, C.J., concurring) (where sentencing judge was "disempowered" from imposing life, "if he used a term of years to impose a life sentence he was evading a limitation on his authority.").
¶ 67. Legislative history can also be indicative of legislative intent. However, as the defendant argues, the legislative history of this statute raises more questions than it answers.
¶ 68. The original version of Wis. Stat. § 973.014 was enacted by 1987 Wisconsin Act 412. That Act was first introduced as Assembly Bill 8 (November 1987 Special Session). As enacted by the Assembly, the bill originally provided that anyone convicted of a crime punishable by life imprisonment could be sentenced to life "without parole eligibility" — precisely the sentence imposed in this case. The Senate then enacted a much narrower version, which simply provided that a circuit court could defer the date of parole eligibility in cases where the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder while committing or attempting certain violent felonies, including hostage taking. See § 5 of Senate Substitute Amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 8.
*430¶ 69. The measure then moved back to the Assembly, where it was further amended by a provision that ultimately became the basis for the present Wis. Stat. § 973.014. See § 5 of Assembly Amendment 1 to Senate Substitute Amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 8. That version would have provided the circuit court with three sentencing options:
973.014 SENTENCE OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT;_PAROLE ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION. When a court sentences a person to life imprisonment for a crime committed on or after the effective date of this section. . .[revisor inserts date], the court shall make a parole eligibility determination regarding the person and choose one of the following options:
(1) The person is not eligible for parole.
(2) The person is eligible for parole under s. 57.06(1).
(3) The person is eligible for parole on a date set by the court. The court may not set a date that occurs before the earliest possible parole eligibility date as calculated under s. 57.06(1).
(Emphasis added.) Thus, this version would have expressly authorized the sentence imposed in this case — life without possibility of parole. But, the legislature's Committee of Conference recommended that this option be struck; Wis. Stat. § 973.014 was thereafter adopted with only two parole options rather than with the third option of life without parole.
¶ 70. Since the legislature struck a provision that would have expressly authorized precisely the sentence that was imposed here (life without parole), the remainder of the statute as enacted should not be construed as authorizing such a sentence. The legislature's action "strongly militates against a [judicial] *431judgment that [the legislature] intended a result that it expressly declined to enact." Gulf Oil Corp, v. Copp Paving Co., 419 U.S. 186, 200 (1974). "Where [a legislature] includes limiting language in an earlier version of a bill but deletes it prior to enactment, it may be presumed that the limitation was not intended." Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23-24 (1983).
¶ 71. The State argues that a May 23, 1988 one-page memo to "File" prepared by Bruce Feustel, an attorney with the Legislative Reference Bureau, and a one-page "Drafting Request" from the "Conference" that was apparently received by Mr. Fuestel on May 24 provide a clear indication of legislative intent. The Feustel memo summarized the three parole options contained in the amended Assembly version of A.B. 8 before it went to the Committee of Conference, and opined that there was "no limit" on how long parole eligibility could be deferred by a circuit court; it "could be a date 100 years in the future."
¶ 72. I disagree with the State's interpretation. The Feustel memo is simply too slim a reed to support the conclusion that the legislature definitely intended to grant implicit authority to circuit courts to impose indirect life without parole sentences on the basis of ambiguous statutory language.
f 73. Finally, the court must recognize that the legislature knows how to create an unambiguous statute. In his brief, Setagord sets forth several examples of legislative drafting that exhibit an unambiguous legislative intent to allow the circuit court to impose a life sentence without parole, demonstrating that when the legislature intends to authorize such punishment it does so directly through plain and unambiguous language.
*432¶ 74. In the first example, Wis. Stat. § 973.014(2) (1993-94) expressly provides that "persistent repeaters" are subject to life imprisonment "without the possibility of parole." Setagord is not a persistent repeater. Yet he has been sentenced as if he were.
¶ 75. Second, Wis. Stat. § 973.014(1)(c) (1995-96) expressly gives the circuit court the power to declare that any defendant sentenced to life imprisonment "is not eligible for parole," but "only if the court sentences a person for a crime committed on or after August 31, 1995." Setagord is not subject to this section. Yet he has been sentenced as if he were.
¶ 76. The legislature's direct authorization of life without parole sentences in these situations demonstrates that Wis. Stat. § 973.014(i)(b) (1991-92) does not extend so far as to authorize the imposition of an indirect sentence of life without parole by the setting of a parole eligibility date that no defendant could possibly live to reach. Had the legislature intended to permit such sentences in § 973.014(l)(b), it could and would have used the same language as it used in Wis. Stat. §§ 973.014(2) (1993-94) and the newly enacted Wis. Stat. § 973.014(1)(c) (1995-96).
¶ 77. The legislature' amended Wis. Stat. § 973.014(1) during the pendency of this case to add another parole eligibility option: a circuit court now has the power to declare that any defendant sentenced to life imprisonment "is not eligible for parole," but "only if the court sentences a person for a crime committed on or after the effective date" of the amendment, August 31, 1995. See 1995 Wis. Act. 48, § 5(to be codified as Wis. Stat. § 973.014(l)(c)). It is conceded that Setagord is not subject to sentencing under this provision because his crime was committed prior to its effective date.
*433¶ 78. The majority's interpretation fails for yet another reason: since the legislature clearly knows how to authorize life without parole sentences, its command in Wis. Stat. § 973.014 that a sentencing "shall" set a parole eligibility date can only be construed as requiring that the defendant be given a meaningful possibility for parole at some point within an average person's lifetime. To construe a command that a parole eligibility date be set as allowing a circuit court to render a convicted defendant entirely ineligible for parole is inconsistent with the duty to set a date for parole eligibility. It results in making a "charade" out of the whole parole eligibility date determination and exalts form over substance. This violates the fundamental canon that statutes are to be construed to avoid absurd, unreasonable, illogical, and senseless interpretations. See, e.g., State v. Moore, 167 Wis. 2d 491, 496, 481 N.W.2d 633 (1992).
¶ 79. In sum, looking at the phrase "any later date" in isolation, the majority erroneously concludes that Wis. Stat. § 973.014 is unambiguous. However, when that phrase is properly construed in conjunction with other provisions of the statute, more than one reasonable interpretation can be drawn as to its meaning. Accordingly, the statute is ambiguous. Because it is the function of the legislature to establish sentencing policy, and because fundamental rules of statutory construction indicate that the legislature's sentencing policy as established in § 973.014(l)(b) was to allow the circuit court the discretion to set a parole eligibility date that provided a reasonable expectation of parole eligibility, I respectfully dissent.
*434¶ 80. I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradely join this dissenting opinion.

 Unless otherwise indicated, future statutory references are to the 1991-92 volume.

 Frequently the wisest analysis can be found in the simple adage." 'If something walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims, covering it with chicken feathers will not make it into a chicken.'" Boyd v. Layher, 427 N.W.2d 593, 596 (Mich. App. 1988) (citation omitted). Likewise, Setagord's sentence is a sentence of life in prison without parole; calling it a term of years sentence with a parole eligibility date far beyond life expectancy cannot alter that simple fact.

 Wis. Stat. §973.014 was renumbered by 1993 Wis. Act 289, § 11—12. As did the court of appeals, and as does the majority, I refer to the provisions of § 973.014 by the current numbering.

 1993 Wisconsin Act 289 amended Wis. Stat. § 973.014, renumbering the statute and adding the following provision:
(2) when a court sentences a person to life imprisonment under s. 939.62(2m), the court shall provide that the sentence is without possibility of parole.