Court Opinion

ID: 9481379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:17:18.239747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:16.796401
License: Public Domain

EBEL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Based upon the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Blanton v. City of North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538, 109 S.Ct. 1289, 103 L.Ed.2d 550 (1989) and the Tenth Circuit’s long-standing decision of United States v. Potvin, 481 F.2d 380 (10th Cir.1973), I conclude that defendant here was denied his right to a jury trial.
The Sixth Amendment provides that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury-” U.S. Const. amend. VI. Although the Supreme Court has long recognized “that there is a category of petty crimes or offenses which is not subject to the Sixth Amendment jury trial provision,” Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 159, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 1453, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968), courts generally have held that crimes carrying a penalty in excess of six months imprisonment are not petty and therefore entitle the defendant to a jury trial. See Baldwin v. New York, 399 U.S. 66, 68, 90 S.Ct. 1886, 1887, 26 L.Ed.2d 437 (1970); United States v. Smyer, 596 F.2d 939, 942 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 843, 62 L.Ed.2d 55 (1979).
In this case, defendant was charged with four misdemeanor offenses, each carrying a maximum penalty upon conviction of six months imprisonment. Taken in the aggregate, the statutory penalties exposed the defendant to a potential imprisonment of two years. However, as the majority points out, the trial judge promised before trial not to sentence defendant to more than six months incarceration. Therefore, in order to resolve defendant’s Sixth Amendment claim, we must first determine: 1) whether it is appropriate to aggregate the penalties faced by defendants charged with multiple petty offenses; and 2) whether the right to a jury trial should be determined on the basis of the potential penalties provided in the statutory definitions of the crimes (an objective standard), or on the basis of the potential penalties as they may be limited by the judge before commencement of trial (subjective standard).
AGGREGATION
Although the Supreme Court has yet to address the right to a jury trial when a defendant is charged with multiple petty offenses, the Tenth Circuit has held that “a person charged with two or more petty offenses arising out of the same act, transaction, or occurrence, is entitled to a trial by jury when the potential aggregate penalty on all counts is in excess of six months imprisonment.” Potvin, 481 F.2d at 381. The Potvin court reasoned that “defendants can view as no less serious a possible penalty of a year in prison when charged with two offenses arising out of the same act ... than if charged with one offense having a potential penalty of one year’s imprisonment.” Id. at 382. However, while there can be no doubt that Potvin expressly directed courts to aggregate the penalties of petty offenses for Sixth Amendment purposes, “the Potvin opinion *1521[did] not reveal whether the right to a jury trial should be determined on the basis of the potential penalties provided in the statutory definition of the crimes, or on the basis of the actual penalties faced by the defendant.” Haar v. Hanrahan, 708 F.2d 1547, 1552 (10th Cir.1983). This issue was not addressed until ten years later with the case of Haar v. Hanrahan.
SUBJECTIVE vs. OBJECTIVE TEST
In Haar, the court faced a situation similar to the one we face today. Defendant, who was charged with several “petty” offenses, demanded a jury trial on the reasoning that the aggregate statutory penalty for his offenses exceeded six months imprisonment. The state court rejected defendant’s request, concluding that defendant was not entitled to a jury trial since he had been assured before trial that his sentence would not exceed six months. The Tenth Circuit carefully weighed the “choice between the ‘objective’ penalty provided by statute and the ‘subjective’ penalty actually faced by the defendant,” and observed that “[bjoth choices have merit in terms of the values that Potvin seeks to protect.” Id. However, the court ultimately opted for the subjective test, holding that “a defendant is entitled to a jury trial for multiple petty offenses ... only if he is actually threatened at the commencement of trial with an aggregate potential penalty of greater than six months’ imprisonment.” Id. at 1553 (emphasis added).
“[G]iven the absence of Supreme Court guidance on this issue,” id., the Haar rule was a perfectly acceptable and workable extension of Potvin’s Sixth Amendment jurisprudence. However, in 1989 the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Blanton v. City of North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538, 109 S.Ct. 1289, 103 L.Ed.2d 550 (1989). Although not a case involving multiple petty offenses, Blanton stated in no uncertain terms that courts are to apply an objective standard when considering the Sixth Amendment claims of criminal defendants. Specifically, the Court stated:
In determining whether a particular offense should be categorized as “petty,” our early decisions focused on the nature of the offense and on whether it was triable by a jury at common law. In recent years, however, we have sought more objective indications of the seriousness with which society regards the offense. We have found the most relevant such criteria in the severity of the maximum authorized penalty. In fixing the maximum penalty for a crime, a legislature includes within the definition of the crime itself a judgment about the seriousness of the offense. The judiciary should not substitute its judgment as to seriousness for that of the legislature, which is far better equipped to perform the task, and is likewise more responsive to changes in attitude and more amenable to the recognition and correction of their misperceptions in this respect.
Id. at 541-542, 109 S.Ct. at 1291-1292 (citations and quotations omitted) (emphasis added).
To my mind, the subjective test announced in Haar cannot be squared with this language in Blanton. By hinging a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights on the pre-trial sentence pronouncements of the trial judge, Haar clearly invites “the judiciary ... [to] substitute its judgment as to seriousness for that of the legislature.” Blanton, 489 U.S. at 541, 109 S.Ct. at 1292. Such a standard directly contravenes the Supreme Court’s admonition to look to “objective indications of the seriousness with which society regards the offense.” Id. I therefore conclude that Blanton overrules Haar and directs us to look to the “ ‘objective’ penalty provided by statute.” 1 Haar, *1522708 F.2d at 1552. Coupled with the aggregation policy set forth in Potvin, Blanton requires us to make a “determination of the right to a jury trial on the basis of the aggregate of the statutorily prescribed penalties.... ” Id. Applying this standard to the case at hand, I must conclude that appellant was denied his right to a jury trial.
CONCLUSION
Blanton and Potvin require a jury trial for defendants who, based on the aggregate of the statutorily prescribed penalties, face more than six months incarceration. Since appellant here faced such a penalty, he was entitled to a trial by jury. Although I am mindful of the majority’s concerns regarding “the practical necessity for limiting the number of jury trials,” supra, I am also mindful of our obligation to follow the clear directives of the Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit. Should the prospect of additional jury trials become truly overwhelming, it may be necessary for this court to reconsider en banc the policy of aggregating petty offenses as set forth in Potvin. Prosecutors and legislatures might also address this potential problem by tailoring their criminal charges and by statutorily precluding aggregation. For the time-being, however, we are bound to adhere to both Potvin and Blanton and therefore should reverse the lower court’s ruling.

. Although the majority finds support for its "subjective” test in the Supreme Court’s criminal contempt cases, Haar itself acknowledged that these cases are "of limited precedential value.” Haar, 708 F.2d at 1550 n. 14. As the Supreme Court noted in Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 162 n. 35, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 1454 n. 35, "criminal contempt is unique in that legislative bodies frequently authorize punishment without stating the extent of the penalty which can be imposed.” That is, the statutes are open-ended and do not define minimum or maximum penalties. Thus, "... where no legislative penalty is specified and sentence is left to the discretion of the *1522judge, as is often true in the case of criminal contempt, the pettiness or seriousness of the contempt will be judged by the penalty actually imposed." Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 511, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 2691, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974).