Jamison v. Klem

• Decision Date: 30 September 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-1045.,07-1045.
• Parties: Philmingo JAMISON, Appellant v. Edward KLEM; District Attorney of York County; Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

544 F.3d 266

Philmingo JAMISON, Appellant v. Edward KLEM; District Attorney of York County; Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

No. 07-1045.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued July 24, 2008.

Opinion filed: September 30, 2008.

Leo A. Latella, Esq. (Argued), Federal Public Defender, Scranton, PA, for Appellant.

Katherine L. Doucette, Esq. (Argued), William H. Graff, Jr., Esq., York County District Attorney, York, PA, for Appellee.

Before McKEE, FUENTES, and WEIS Circuit Judges.

Opinion

McKEE, Circuit Judge.

Philmingo Jamison was sentenced to five to ten years imprisonment after pleading guilty to two separate criminal cases involving drug offenses. After unsuccessfully challenging his conviction in state courts, Jamison filed a pro se petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in which he challenged the voluntariness of his guilty plea. The Magistrate Judge to whom the petition was referred issued a thorough Report and Recommendation recommending that habeas relief be granted. That Judge concluded that Jamison's plea was not knowing, voluntary and intelligent because Jamison was not advised of the mandatory term of imprisonment that his guilty plea subjected him to under Pennsylvania's indeterminate sentencing scheme. The District Court rejected the recommendation, and denied the petition because no Supreme Court precedent specifically requires that defendants be informed of the terms of an applicable mandatory minimum sentence before pleading guilty. The District Court thus concluded that the state courts' rejection of Jamison's claim was neither contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, Supreme Court precedent.

For the reasons that follow, we will reverse.

I. Factual and Procedural Background.

In September 2000, Jamison was charged in two separate cases; one charged him with possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to deliver, and the other charged him with possession of marijuana, driving without a license, and reckless endangerment. Prior to trial, the prosecutor offered Jamison the opportunity to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of "4-8 years." Pursuant to the advice of counsel, Jamison rejected that plea offer.

However, Jamison eventually decided to enter an open guilty plea without executing any formal plea agreement. Thereafter, the Commonwealth completed a onepage form wherein the prosecutor wrote that the government would nevertheless still recommend: "4-8 years w/ mand."

On July 9th, 2001, the trial court conducted a change of plea hearing which began with the prosecutor stating:

[Jamison] has filled out a guilty plea colloquy. It is going to be a straight plea with a pre-sentence, other than the fact that we will run the recklessly endangering case concurrent with the drug case. He is facing a sentence by Judge Kennedy on a third-degree homicide, and we have no agreement as to whether these cases are concurrent or consecutive. Of course, we are going to ask for them to be consecutive, and we will be filing mandatory on the drug case.¹

No other statements were made at the hearing regarding the mandatory minimum sentence, or the length of the sentence Jamison would be required to serve under state law as a result of the applicable mandatory minimum sentence. Moreover, other than the aforementioned reference to "filing mandatory ...", Jamison was never informed that his plea required the judge to impose a sentence of imprisonment. On the contrary, during the hearing, the court told Jamison that because there was no agreement with the Commonwealth, sentencing "is basically up to the court." The judge asked Jamison if he understood that sentencing was "basically up to the court," and Jamison affirmed that he did. The court then accepted Jamison's guilty plea. In doing so, the court implicitly found that Jamison was entering the plea knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently.

Jamison also filled out and signed a written guilty plea colloquy. In that colloquy, Jamison acknowledged only that he was facing a maximum term of 20 years imprisonment pursuant to his plea.

Six days after Jamison entered the plea, the Commonwealth sent a letter to both Jamison and defense counsel. The letter stated in part:

Based on your guilty plea to an offense at 35 P.A.C.S.A. 780-113(a)(30) wherein the controlled substance, Cocaine, totaled 79.1 grams, a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years, and $15,000 fine must be imposed, 5 years and $30,000 if second or subsequent offense.²

On August 1, 2001, Jamison returned to the state trial court for a sentencing hearing. The prosecutor noted at the hearing that Jamison had a juvenile record for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and that he was therefore subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years imprisonment and a $30,000 fine. The court then informed Jamison that he had a right to make any statement that he "care[d] to make," but that he was not required to make any statement if he did not choose to speak.³ Jamison responded that he "had nothing to say." The court then sentenced him to not less than five nor more than ten years for the cocaine conviction and imposed a fine of $30,000. The court also imposed a concurrent sentence of not less than two, nor more than four years for the marijuana charge. The sentences were consecutive to any sentence that was imposed on the conviction for third-degree homicide.

A. State Court Decisions.

On June 5, 2002, Jamison filed a pro se petition under the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA") in which he challenged inter alia, the validity of his guilty plea. Counsel was thereafter appointed, and a hearing was conducted. At that PCRA hearing, Jamison testified that prior to his guilty plea, he was not informed by anyone that his guilty plea subjected him to a mandatory minimum sentence, much less a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and $30,000 fine. Jamison further testified that when the prosecutor stated at the change of plea colloquy that she would be "filing a mandatory on the drug case," he did not know what she was referencing. Jamison maintained that he did not know he was facing a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. "As far as she said, a mandatory, and that was it. I didn't know what mandatory would be filed. I didn't know I was subject to a mandatory minimum of five years and fine due to my second offense." Jamison testified that he would not have entered an open guilty plea if he had known that he would have to serve at least five years in prison as a result.

Jamison's PCRA testimony was confirmed by his trial counsel, Harold Fitzkee, Jr., who had been the York County District Attorney before returning to private practice. He testified that he never told Jamison that Jamison would have to serve at least five years in prison if he pled guilty. Fitzkee explained that he advised Jamison to enter an open guilty plea because, based on his knowledge of Jamison's prior record, he thought Jamison would be better off with the court determining the sentence than accepting the four to eight years that the prosecutor was offering. Fitzkee also testified that he first learned that Jamison was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years at the sentencing hearing, after Jamison's plea had already been accepted by the court. Fitzkee swore he never received the letter from the prosecutor stating that a mandatory minimum of five years in prison applied and he never discussed the mandatory with Jamison.

The PCRA court ruled that Jamison could not establish that his guilty plea was constitutionally infirm. The court first concluded that, as a matter of state law, the prosecutor's statement that the Commonwealth would be filing "a mandatory on the drug case" and the writing that the Commonwealth would recommend a sentence of "4-8 yrs w/ mand" were sufficient notice to inform Jamison of the Commonwealth's intent to seek a mandatory minimum sentence. The court also concluded that even if notice was insufficient, the guilty plea was nevertheless valid because Jamison knew that he had no agreements regarding sentencing, and that the maximum sentence for his crimes was 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $200,000. The PCRA court concluded that this knowledge, and the fact that Jamison was sentenced to a term less than that 20 year maximum sentence, was sufficient for a knowing, voluntary and intelligent guilty plea. The Superior Court affirmed the PCRA court's denial of relief on different grounds without discussing the PCRA court's opinion. The Superior Court held that Jamison could not obtain relief because he did not plead actual innocence as required under state law. See 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 9543(a)(2)(iii).

B. Proceedings in the District Court.

Jamison then filed a pro se habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging the voluntariness of his guilty plea. Jamison's petition was referred to a Magistrate Judge who held a hearing. During that hearing, Jamison testified that, prior to pleading guilty, he was not aware that he was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.⁴

The Magistrate Judge appropriately analyzed Jamison's claim under the deferential standard required by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"). Under AEDPA, a federal habeas court can not grant relief after a state court has rejected the petitioner's claim on the merits unless the state court's decision was "contrary to," or an "unreasonable application of," clearly established Supreme Court precedent. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).⁵ The Magistrate Judge concluded that although no Supreme Court case precisely held that a defendant must be informed of an applicable mandatory minimum sentence in order for a guilty plea to survive constitutional scrutiny, Jamison's claim for relief was nevertheless clearly governed by the Supreme Court's decision in Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969).

The...