U.S. v. Mitchell, 92-3903

• Citation: 18 F.3d 1355
• Decision Date: 03 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-3903,92-3903
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gregory MITCHELL, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Page 1355

18 F.3d 1355

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gregory MITCHELL, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 92-3903.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Oct. 5, 1993.

Decided Feb. 23, 1994.

Rehearing Denied May 3, 1994.

Barry R. Elden, Asst. U.S. Atty., Crim. Receiving, Appellate Div., Gregory T. Mitchell (argued), Office of U.S. Atty., Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellee.

Standish E. Willis, Chicago, IL (argued), for defendant-appellant.

Before COFFEY, FLAUM, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

In this case Gregory Mitchell ("Defendant") originally entered a plea of guilty to the charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 846, and agreed to be sentenced as a "career offender" as defined in the United States Sentencing Guidelines ("U.S.S.G.") Sec. 4B1.1. However, at the sentencing hearing Defendant changed his mind, disputing his career offender status on the ground that his December 1984 heroin conviction was an invalid violation of his constitutional rights. The district court disagreed and found Defendant to be a career offender. With a total offense level of 34 and a category VI criminal history, the district court sentenced Defendant to a total of 262 months imprisonment. Defendant here appeals this sentence arguing, as he did to the district court, that his December 1984 conviction should not be counted towards his criminal history category on the ground that it rested on a constitutionally invalid plea. We disagree with Defendant and affirm the district court.

I. Background

On March 5, 1992, pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. See 21 U.S.C. Secs. 846. In the March 1992 plea agreement Defendant specifically acknowledged that he was an active participant in the conspiracy to distribute cocaine and that as part of the conspiracy he had conducted seven different cocaine transactions, between March 17, 1990 and April 10, 1990, with co-defendants Valerie Mays, Linda Mitchell, and Anthony Fort. Additionally, Defendant stipulated that for Sentencing Guidelines purposes, he had six prior convictions, including both a May 1984 bench trial conviction and a 1984 guilty plea. In his March 1992 plea agreement Defendant stipulated that, given his prior convictions, he qualifies as a career offender under U.S.S.G. Sec. 4B1.1 with a category VI criminal history. In consideration of this plea the district court sentenced Defendant to 262 months of incarceration.

On June 4, 1992, Defendant filed a motion with the district court challenging his status as a career offender. In this motion Defendant claimed that his sentence should not be enhanced as a career offender because the record of his 1984 plea failed to demonstrate that the plea was sufficiently intelligent and voluntary and that an adequate basis in fact supported the state court's acceptance of that plea.

On November 10, 1992, the district court rejected Defendant's challenge to the validity of his 1984 guilty plea. First, the district court held that an adequate factual basis existed to substantiate the 1984 plea. Second, the district court found that the trial judge fulfilled the constitutional requirements of Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), and that Defendant's 1984 plea was entered intelligently and voluntarily. Thus, the district court rejected Defendant's claims of error and denied his motion for reconsideration. The district court continued with the sentencing hearing wherein Defendant's counsel noted that he found no inaccuracies in the Presentence Investigation ("PSI"). Defendant was sentenced to 262 months of imprisonment, the minimum applicable term under the guidelines. Defendant appeals this sentence with the same constitutional argument that he used before in the district court. We affirm.

II. Analysis

In this appeal, Defendant argues the following points: (A) that a "collateral attack" ¹ against an allegedly invalid prior conviction should be permitted at a defendant's sentencing hearing, and (B) such an attack would reveal constitutional infirmities in Defendant's 1984 conviction, thus forbidding its use to enhance his recent sentence. We shall address these arguments serially.

A. Collateral Attack

Defendant first argues that, as a general matter, at his recent sentencing hearing he should have been permitted to attack his 1984 conviction. In this respect, Defendant argues that: (1) the 1992 Guidelines direct federal district courts to determine for themselves if and when to permit collateral attacks on prior convictions, and (2) the sentencing hearing is a proper forum to entertain such collateral attacks. We disagree. Outside of narrow circumstances, ² we hold that sentencing hearings are not the appropriate forum to examine the validity of prior convictions even though such convictions may be used to enhance a present sentence.

1. Sentencing Guidelines

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 3551-3586, through the Sentencing Guidelines, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 991 (1985), instructs district courts to consider an offender's criminal history. Section 4A1.2 of the Guidelines specifies which convictions can be included in a defendant's criminal history score, but is silent as to a sentencing court's duty or authority to critically examine the validity of such convictions. However, Application Note Six and a background comment to the recent versions of the Guidelines do make reference to this issue. The 1990-92 Sentencing Guidelines, Application Note Six, reads: "[s]entences resulting from convictions that a defendant shows to have been previously ruled constitutionally invalid are not to be counted." U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2 (Nov. 1992) (emphasis supplied). Supplementing Application Note Six, the Background comment reads: "[t]he Commission leaves for court determination the issue of whether a defendant may collaterally attack at sentencing a prior conviction." Id. Some courts have concluded that the above directives are incompatible. ³ This circuit has not directly addressed the precise impact of the Guidelines on the ability of the district court to hear collateral attacks of prior convictions at sentencing hearings. ⁴ A similar case disputing the authority of the federal courts to hear collateral attacks on prior convictions during a federal sentencing hearing is presently before the Supreme Court. ⁵

Our colleagues in the Ninth Circuit have observed the Commission itself appears to have gestured through its abundant amendments that it never hoped to effect any change in the judiciary's traditional role in determining for itself the extent to which collateral challenges to prior convictions will be allowed at sentencing. See Vea-Gonzales, 986 F.2d at 327 (stating that it is "likely the Commission intended to leave to the judiciary the entire issue of determining the kinds of collateral attacks (if any) which would be permissible at sentencing"). We agree that the Commission has undergone its iteration of amendments in an effort to make explicit what always has been implicit, namely that the determination of how to deal with collateral attacks on prior convictions at sentencing is a matter for judicial determination.

Before 1990, the Commission dealt with collateral attacks with the following language: "Convictions which the defendant shows to have been constitutionally invalid may not be counted in the criminal history score." U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2, comment (n.6) (Nov. 1989). Several circuits, including this one, understood the pre-1990 version as in some manner directing federal courts to allow defendants to challenge prior state convictions for the first time at their federal sentencing hearing. See, e.g., United States v. Brown, 899 F.2d 677, 679 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Wildes, 910 F.2d 1484, 1485 (7th Cir.1990).

Perhaps perceiving their efforts to be misunderstood, the Commission attempted to put the appropriateness of collateral attacks back into the judiciary's bailiwick. In November 1990 the Sentencing Commission amended its guidelines to read: "[S]entences resulting from convictions that a defendant shows to have been previously ruled constitutionally invalid are not to be counted," along side the famous background note "[t]he Commissioner leaves for court determination the issue of whether a defendant may collaterally attack at sentencing a prior conviction." U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2 (Nov. 1992). Despite the Commission's 1990-92 versions some circuit courts were reluctant to take back, as a judicial matter, the question of collateral attacks on prior convictions. ⁶

In 1993 the Commission again amended the Sentencing Guidelines. The 1993 version deleted the following sentence from the 1990-92 version: "Also, sentences resulting from convictions that a defendant shows to have been previously ruled constitutionally invalid are not to be counted.", and added the following in lieu thereof:

With respect to the current sentencing proceeding, this guideline and commentary do not confer upon the defendant any right to attack collaterally a prior conviction or sentence beyond any such rights otherwise recognized in law (e.g., 21 U.S.C. Sec. 851 expressly provides that a defendant may collaterally attack certain prior convictions).

See Amendments to U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2, 58 Fed.Reg. 27148, 27160 (1993). Furthermore, in the 1993 version the background note "[t]he commission leaves for court determination the issue of whether a defendant may collaterally attack at sentencing a prior conviction" was deleted. Finally, the Commission went on to further explain the meaning of the 1993 changes:

This amendment also clarifies the Commission's intent with respect to whether Sec. 4A1.2 confers on defendants a right to attack prior convictions collaterally at sentencing, an issue on which the appellate courts have differed. This amendment addresses the inter-circuit conflict in interpreting...