Knapp v. Cardwell

• Decision Date: 19 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-5419,No. 33659,33659,80-5419
• Citation: 667 F.2d 1253
• Parties: John Henry KNAPP, Arizona State Prison Inmate, and all inmates of the Arizona State Prison similarly situated, Petitioners-Appellants, v. Harold CARDWELL, et al., Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1253

667 F.2d 1253

John Henry KNAPP, Arizona State Prison Inmate No. 33659, and all inmates of the Arizona State Prison similarly situated, Petitioners-Appellants, v. Harold CARDWELL, et al., Respondents-Appellees.

No. 80-5419.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 8, 1981.

Decided Jan. 19, 1982.

John Foreman, Deputy Public Defender, Phoenix, Ariz., for Ceja, knapp.

Donald S. Klein, Tucson, Ariz., for Ortiz, Jeffers.

Allen G. Minker, Tucson, Ariz., for Richmond, Blazak.

Robert C. Brown, Casa Grande, Ariz., for Greenawalt.

Robert B. Norgren, Tucson, Ariz., for Steelman.

John P. Frank, Phoenix, Ariz., argued; NAACP Legal Defense Fund, etc. Michael Cooper, Jose A. Cardenas, Phoenix, Ariz., on brief, for amicus curiae.

William J. Schaffer, III, Chief Counsel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Phoenix, Ariz., for respondents-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Before MERRILL, ADAMS ^*, and SNEED, Circuit Judges.

SNEED, Circuit Judge:

Appellants are a class of Arizona prisoners sentenced to death. They attack their death sentences on the ground that the Arizona law under which they were sentenced, as interpreted by the Arizona Supreme Court, is unconstitutional. They further claim that even if it is constitutional, its application to them violates the ex post facto and double jeopardy clauses of the Constitution, and that their constitutional rights to speedy sentences were violated. The district court rejected these contentions and upheld the death sentences. We affirm.

I. FACTS AND BACKGROUND

In 1973 the Arizona legislature adopted alternative penalties for first degree murder of death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole for 25 years. Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-454 (1978) (current version at Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703). The enactment required the judge to hold a presentence hearing at which he would hear evidence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. After considering the evidence presented at the presentence hearing, and weighing it together with evidence relevant to aggravation or mitigation introduced at trial, the judge was required to make a finding as to the existence or non-existence of each aggravating and mitigating circumstance listed in the statute. In order to impose the death penalty, the judge was required to find the existence of one or more of the aggravating circumstances listed in the statute and "that there are no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to call for leniency." Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-454(D) (1978) (current version at Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(E)).

In upholding section 13-454 against a challenge for vagueness, the Arizona Supreme Court in 1976 interpreted the list of mitigating factors in that section to be exclusive. State v. Richmond, 114 Ariz. 186, 560 P.2d 41 (1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1101 (1977). This restrictive interpretation was reaffirmed on March 1, 1978, in State v. Bishop, 118 Ariz. 263, 576 P.2d 122 (1978), sentence vacated sub nom. Bishop v. Arizona, 439 U.S. 810, 99 S.Ct. 69, 58 L.Ed.2d 103 (1978) (death sentence vacated and remanded for reconsideration in light of Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978)), sentence reinstated, State v. Bishop, 127 Ariz. 531, 622 P.2d 478 (1980).

On April 21, 1978, two death-row inmates petitioned the district court for writs of habeas corpus, alleging the unconstitutionality of section 13-454 as interpreted in On May 2, 1978, the Arizona Supreme Court directed the execution of John Henry Knapp. Knapp immediately instituted the present action in district court, alleging that the court's reasoning in Richmond v. Cardwell was applicable to all inmates on Arizona's death row. The district court, on May 12, 1978, enjoined the state from imposing the death penalty on any state prisoners. On July 3, 1978, the United States Supreme Court found an Ohio death penalty statute unconstitutional because it limited consideration of mitigating factors to those enumerated in the statute and thereby potentially excluded consideration of relevant mitigating factors. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978); see also Bell v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 637, 98 S.Ct. 2977, 57 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1978).

State v. Richmond and State v. Bishop. The district court enjoined the state from putting the two petitioners to death, concluding that the failure of section 13-454, as interpreted, to permit consideration of all relevant mitigating circumstances violated petitioners' rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Richmond v. Cardwell, 450 F.Supp. 519 (D.Ariz.1978).

The Arizona Supreme Court reacted to the Lockett decision by deciding in State v. Watson, 120 Ariz. 441, 586 P.2d 1253 (1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 924, 99 S.Ct. 1254, 59 L.Ed.2d 478 (1979), that section 13-454 was unconstitutional insofar as it limited the right of the defendant to show additional mitigating circumstances. 120 Ariz. at 445, 586 P.2d at 1257. The Watson court then reasoned that the offending portion was "severable" and could be "deleted," and proceeded to do so, stating that if the state legislature had been aware of the constitutional problems, it would have permitted consideration of all mitigating factors. ¹ The result of Watson was to change the Arizona procedure for imposing the death penalty to require that the judge hear and consider evidence relevant to any mitigating circumstances and otherwise to leave the procedure intact.

On May 1, 1979, the Arizona legislature adopted the present version of Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703 which, in essence, codified the result reached in Watson. ²

II. DISTRICT COURT DECISION

In July 1979 the district court in this case ordered that there be no executions in Arizona until the state moved to dissolve the May 12, 1978, injunction barring executions. The state made such a motion on January 9, 1980, on the basis that the inmates had been or would be sentenced under a procedure that permits consideration of all mitigating circumstances. The district court, on April 18, 1980, vacated its original injunction and then reimposed a stay of all executions pending appeal to this court. Knapp v. Cardwell, 513 F.Supp. 4 (D.Ariz.1980). In a thorough and well-reasoned opinion, the court held that the post-Watson version of section 13-454 was neither void for vagueness nor violative of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The court also noted its limited power to review state court interpretations of state statutes, and held that in any event the Arizona Supreme Court's interpretation of the statute in Watson was reasonable. The district court went on to reject the prisoners' claims that the application of Watson to them violated the double jeopardy and ex post facto clauses of the Constitution, and held that it was not appropriate to consider the prisoners' claims of violation of their right to speedy sentencing in a class action. We agree with the district court.

III. ISSUES ON APPEAL

Appellants ³ vigorously attack the decision of the district court. They assert both that the result in State v. Watson renders section 13-454 void for vagueness, and that the procedure used by the court to reach its result usurped the powers of the Arizona Legislature and thus violated the Fourteenth Amendment and the guarantee clause of the United States Constitution. They next urge that even if the Watson court reached a permissible result, its application to them violates the double jeopardy and ex post facto clauses of the Constitution. Finally, they continue to insist that delays in imposing sentence on them have violated their Sixth Amendment right to speedy sentencing. We shall address each of these issues.

IV. THE VAGUENESS ISSUE

The Arizona Supreme Court in Watson maintained that it was "severing" the unconstitutional The district court held that Watson merely reinterpreted section 13-454 to allow consideration of any mitigating factors, and did not "sever" any particular language. Knapp v. Cardwell, 513 F.Supp. at 11. While the use of the word "severance" is troublesome, the unmistakable effect of the Watson decision as a whole is to reinterpret the statute to allow any mitigating factor to be considered.

from the constitutional portions of Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-454. State v. Watson, 120 Ariz. at 445, 586 P.2d at 1257. Appellant prisoners argue that by claiming to have effected a severance, the Watson court must have deleted all of subsection F, the subsection that lists the mitigating factors. It follows, they argue, that the remainder of the statute is left with meaningless internal references to a non-existent subsection F and thus is void for vagueness. Alternatively, appellants contend that the deletion of subsection F leaves the statute without any authorization for consideration of mitigating factors, with the consequence that it violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The intent of the Watson court is clear. The court did not state that subsection F in its entirety was unconstitutional. It merely invalidated a prior interpretation of that provision "insofar as it limits the right of the defendant to show additional circumstances." State v. Watson, 120 Ariz. at 445, 586 P.2d at 1257 (emphasis added). The failure of the court explicitly to overrule State v. Richmond, 114 Ariz. 186, 560 P.2d 41 (1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1101 (1977), the case in which the Arizona Supreme Court held the list of mitigating factors to be exclusive, is not determinative. The intent and effect of the Watson decision are clear.

We agree with the district court that the substance of Watson was merely the elimination of the restriction on cognizable mitigating circumstances engrafted onto the statute by State v. Richmond. This constitutes a reinterpretation, and it has long been within the prerogative of the...