Court Opinion

ID: 9463722
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:14:22.6381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:15.075726
License: Public Domain

McWILLIAMS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the judgment of the district court on the basis of the reasons given in its memorandum opinion.
The New Mexico habitual criminal statute is mandatory in its terms. N.M.Stat. Ann. § 40A-29-6. The fact that a district attorney has not proceeded against all who come within the reach of an habitual criminal statute does not deny equal protection to persons who are prosecuted thereunder. Oyler v. Boles, 368 U.S. 448, 82 S.Ct. 501, 7 L.Ed.2d 446 (1962). There is no requirement under the New Mexico habitual criminal statute that the charge of being an *63habitual offender must be filed when the information charging the current offense is filed. On the contrary, the statute provides that “if at any time, either after sentence or conviction, it shall appear that a person convicted of a felony has previously been convicted of a crime ... it shall be the duty . . ..” (Emphasis added.) N.M.Stat.Ann. § 40A-29-6. Under the statute, then, it would appear that the district attorney may wait until there has been a final conviction on the current charge before filing an information charging the defendant as an habitual offender. In State v. McCraw, 59 N.M. 348, 284 P.2d 670 (1955), an amended information, charging the defendant as an habitual offender under a predecessor statute, was filed one year after the conviction on the current offense. I do not believe that the practice in New Mexico of waiting to file habitual criminal charges until the conviction on the current charge has become final comes within the prohibitions of Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628 (1974) or North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969).
In his amended petition filed in the district court, the petitioner in the instant case did not charge the district attorney in instituting habitual criminal charges against him with acting in a vindictive or retaliatory manner. All that was alleged was that the sequence of events indicated an “appearance” of retaliatory action. If there had been a charge that the district attorney had actually acted in a retaliatory and vindictive manner, then an evidentiary hearing might well be in order, but I do not deem such to be the instant case.