Court Opinion

ID: 9785545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:11:25.074623+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:28.990204
License: Public Domain

Leben, J.,
dissenting in part: Under K.S.A. 21-4720(b), a district judge has discretion to make the sentences either concurrent or consecutive in a multiple-conviction case. Concurrent sentences all share the same clock; the defendant serves only the longest sentence as less serious ones tick away alongside it. Consecutive sentences are a string of separate clocks; time doesn’t begin to count on a second sentence until the first one is fully served, which results in a lengthier time in custody.
Despite the importance of this issue, the district court is not required to give reasons for it- — and the district court’s decision to make sentences consecutive ordinarily is not appealable. See State v. Flores, 268 Kan. 657, 660, 999 P.2d 919 (2000); State v. Thorpe, 36 Kan. App. 2d 475, 478, 141 P.3d 521, rev. denied 282 Kan. 796 (2006).
I cannot agree with the majority on the single issue of whether the district court must resentence the defendant after one of the underlying convictions has been reversed. We do not know — and the district court is not required to explain- — why Hawkins received consecutive sentences. Perhaps the district judge concluded that two aggravated-assault convictions and the illegal possession of a firearm merited consecutive sentences, but perhaps that same district judge would conclude that one aggravated-assault conviction and the conviction for the illegal possession of a firearm did not merit consecutive sentences. Kansas law has long recognized that whether to issue consecutive sentences in a multiple-conviction case is all part of a single sentencing decision. I would include an explicit direction for resentencing Hawkins on remand here so the district judge could reconsider consecutive or concurrent sentencing as it is within the district judge’s discretion, not ours, to decide that.
To place the issue in context, let’s review the procedure for how Hawkins’ sentence was determined with his multiple convictions. *22In a multiple-conviction case, the most serious conviction is deemed the base or primary sentence, and the sentence for that crime is calculated based upon the defendant’s full criminal histoiy. Hawkins’ most serious offense, the aggravated assault on a law-enforcement officer, was the base sentence, and its potential sentencing range is determined by Hawkins’ criminal history. Hawkins had the second-highest criminal-history score, B, which means that he could be sentenced to 37, 39, or 41 months in prison for that conviction. In contrast, if Hawkins had no previous convictions, a score of I, the sentence would have ranged from 17 to 19 months.
In a multiple-conviction case, the sentencing range for convictions other than the base sentence is generally determined without regard to the defendant’s criminal history. Hawkins, then, was treated as if he had a criminal-history score of I for the other offenses, which gave him a sentencing range from 11 to 13 months for aggravated assault and from 7 to 9 months for illegal possession of a firearm. The district judge has the discretion to choose a sentence within that range for each offense and to then decide whether the sentences will run concurrently or consecutively. The district judge in this case gave Hawkins the maximum sentence for each offense and ran all of the sentences consecutively.
If Hawkins had only been convicted of two of the charges, would the judge have still run the sentences consecutively? We have no way of knowing. But we can say with certainty that the judge would have acted well within his discretion whichever way he had decided.
After a judge has exercised that discretion, a defendant with multiple convictions may still appeal from the underlying convictions, and there are several possible situations when one or even two of those convictions are reversed on that appeal. Let’s consider those possibilities, and then we can place both Hawkins’ case and a situation that’s explicitly covered by statute in context. In the examples listed below, I have accounted for either affirmance or reversal and for either concurrent or consecutive sentences for each of three offenses:
*23[[Image here]]
Resentencing would be needed when the base-sentence conviction is reversed (examples C, D, G, and H) because the defendant’s full criminal-history score is only applied against that base sentence. If Hawkins’ base-sentence conviction had been reversed, he would need to be resentenced so that his new base sentence, the aggravated-assault conviction, could be recalculated with his full criminal history. In that case, the new sentencing range for that conviction would have been from 27 to 31 months rather than 11 to 13 months, which was previously used when Hawkins was sentenced with a different base-sentence conviction.
The legislature has explicitly provided for resentencing when the base-conviction sentence is reversed in K.S.A. 21-4720(b)(5):
“In the event a conviction designated as the primary crime in a multiple conviction case is reversed on appeal, the appellate court shall remand the multiple conviction case for resentencing. Upon resentencing, if the case remains a multiple conviction case the court shall follow all of the provisions of this section concerning the sentencing of multiple conviction cases.”
So the legislature has required resentencing in the examples I’ve labeled C, D, G, and H. But does this mean that a remand for resentencing is prohibited in all other cases? I think not.
Two of the remaining situations — -examples E and F — would not need to be remanded for resentencing. In these cases, the district court chose concurrent sentences from the outset. There is no rea*24son to believe that the district court would have made the sentences consecutive with even fewer convictions. And in these hypothetical cases, the base sentence was not reversed, so the sentences don’t need to be recalculated since the base sentence remains the same.
But in the other two remaining hypothetical situations — examples A and B — a remand for resentencing still makes sense. Like Hawkins’ case, the base-sentence conviction was affirmed in both cases, but one other conviction was reversed. In addition, the sentences had run consecutively. In this circumstance, there is simply no way to know whether the district court would have acted differently had there been fewer convictions because the district court is not required to explain the use of its own discretion in making that choice.
The majority would conclude that the legislature considered all of the possible hypothetical cases and intended a remand only when the base-sentence conviction was reversed. When one considers all of the possible hypotheticals in multiple-conviction cases — including the additional possibilities with more than 3 convictions or when some, but not all, sentences are run consecutively — it makes no sense for the legislature to try to cover all of the possibilities by statute. We should not conclude that it tried to do so from the language it used in K.S.A. 21-4720(b)(5).
This conclusion is supported by Kansas caselaw. A 1931 Kansas Supreme Court case, State v. Woodbury, 133 Kan. 1, 2, 298 P. 794 (1931), concluded that a defendant in a multiple-conviction case should be resentenced on “all the counts, those where there was no mistake as well as those in which a mistake was found.” The court based its conclusion both on the statute then in effect and a “well-established rule” that
“the sentence on any or all of the counts running concurrently or consecutively must apply to a single sentence delivered at one time only and covering all the counts on which conviction was had. Whatever concurrent or consecutive features or elements there may be prescribed by the court must all be a part of the one sentence imposed and pronounced by the court on one date only and at one time.” 133 Kan. at 2.
The result I would reach is consistent with the teaching of Wood-bury. In any situation in which a resentencing might make sense, *25one would be required to ensure that the decision on sentencing on all counts would occur at only one time, including whether they would run concurrently or consecutively. In Hawkins’ case, if he is convicted on retrial of the aggravated-assault charge, the majority would have the district court sentence him on that charge long after he was sentenced on the other convictions. More important, if he is acquitted on retrial, Hawkins would lose the opportunity to have the district court consider whether to make the sentences concurrent or consecutive without the taint of an additional conviction that, in a fair retrial, was not warranted.
Although Woodbury arose under earlier statutes, its rationale is still valid, and the case was cited as recently as 2 years ago in State v. Snow, 282 Kan. 323, 342, 144 P.3d 729 (2006), where the court cited it for the proposition that only a single judgment declaring the full measure of the sentence should be announced in a multiple-conviction case.
The cases cited by the majority do not trump Woodbury. State v. Heath, 264 Kan. 557, 957 P.2d 449 (1998), involved only two convictions. The court affirmed one and reversed the other; the conviction for felony murder was upheld, and it carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison. 264 Kan. at 571-72, 592. Surely that was a case in which resentencing was not needed. State v. Spangler, 38 Kan. App. 2d 817, 173 P.3d 656 (2007), involved four convictions. Two of them were reversed, leaving two convictions. The court ordered a resentencing on the most serious charge, manufacturing of methamphetamine, as a severity-level-4 drug felony rather than as a severity-level-1 drug felony. 38 Kan. App. 2d at 839. Neither the court’s opinion nor the parties’ briefs say whether the original sentences had run consecutively or concurrently, but the answer appears to be that they were run concurrendy. The defendant had been sentenced to 154 months in prison, a number within the sentencing grid box for a severity-level-1 drug felony for a defendant with no criminal history. If any of the sentences had run consecutively, the defendant’s total sentence probably would have exceeded that number. Further, neither Heath nor Spangler — nor any other recent case — discusses the question addressed here.
*26Nothing in K.S.A. 21-4720(b)(5) precludes a remand in the circumstances that I’ve discussed, and the statute’s own language as previously quoted also supports this conclusion. The legislature began the second sentence “[U]pon resentencing,” rather than “upon that resentencing” or “upon this resentencing.” Thus, the second sentence of the statute may be read more broadly than the first, which is in line with Woodbury. Under this reading, “[u]pon re-sentencing,” whether required by statute or by the sort of circumstances discussed here, the court must follow the provisions for sentencing in multiple-conviction cases. The rest of the statutory provisions clearly presume that the sentence for all of the convictions in á multiple-conviction case will be announced and decided as a package, which Woodbury suggests is the “well-established rule.” See also People v. Burbine, 106 Cal. App. 4th 1250, 1259, 131 Cal. Rptr. 2d 628 (2003) (holding that on remand in a multiple-conviction case in which one conviction is reversed, the trial judge has the authority on remand to reconsider the sentence on all counts); People v. Hill, 185 Cal. App. 3d 831, 834, 230 Cal. Rptr. 109 (1986) (concluding that resentencing on all charges is required when one conviction is reversed because an “aggregate prison term is not a series of separate independent terms, but one term made up of interdependent components”).
On remand, the district court should be required to resentence Hawkins once any retrial on the aggravated-assault charge has been completed. At that time, if Hawkins is acquitted of this charge, the district judge should consider whether consecutive sentences would be appropriate with only two convictions, a situation not previously considered. If Hawkins is again convicted of the aggravated-assault charge, the district judge still should resentence and use the additional knowledge gained at retrial, which is a result consistent with the teaching of Woodbury and Snow. Sentencing in a multiple-conviction case comprises but a single judgment, and that single judgment should be rendered at a single time, with full consideration of the information available to the court.