Garrus v. Secretary of the Pa. Dep't of Corr.

Decision Date21 September 2012
Docket NumberNo. 09–3586.,09–3586.
Citation694 F.3d 394
PartiesNakia William GARRUS, Appellant v. *SECRETARY OF the PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; The District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia; The Attorney General for the State of Pennsylvania *Pursuant to Rule 43(c), Fed. R. App. P.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

David R. Fine, Anthony R. Holtzman (argued), K & L Gates, Harrisburg, PA, for Appellant.

Thomas W. Dolgenos (argued), David C. Glebe, Philadelphia County Office of District Attorney, Philadelphia, PA, for the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia and the Attorney General for the State of Pennsylvania.

Robert M. Wolff, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Office of Chief Counsel, Mechanicsburg, PA, for the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Robert M. Falin, Montgomery County Office of District Attorney, Norristown, PA, for the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia and the Attorney General for the State of Pennsylvania.

Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SLOVITER, SCIRICA, RENDELL, AMBRO, FUENTES, SMITH, FISHER, CHAGARES, JORDAN, HARDIMAN, GREENAWAY, JR. and VANASKIE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FISHER, Circuit Judge, joined by McKEE, Chief Judge, and SLOVITER, SCIRICA, RENDELL, AMBRO, FUENTES, SMITH, and JORDAN, Circuit Judges.

William Garrus (Garrus), a Pennsylvania state prisoner, seeks federal habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, as amended by the Anti–Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). Garrus was found guilty in state court of voluntary manslaughter in 2001. At sentencing, the judge increased his sentence beyond the statutory maximum based on 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 9714, Pennsylvania's “three strikes” law. In order to do so, the judge made a judicial finding that Garrus had previously been convicted of burglarizing an occupied building, when, in fact, he had only pled guilty to, and been convicted of, second degree burglary (which, under Pennsylvania law, necessarily requires that the burglarized building was unoccupied). In the habeas petition now before us, Garrus argues that this judicial factfinding violated the rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey, requiring that [o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). The District Court denied the petition on the basis that the highest state court determination upholding Garrus's sentence was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law.

Key to our determination is a single question: whether, pursuant to AEDPA, the state court unreasonably applied Apprendi by allowing Garrus to be sentenced beyond the statutory maximum based on a judicial finding that Garrus burglarized an occupied building, despite his plea to the contrary. 1 For the reasons set forth below, we hold that the state court determination upholding Garrus's sentence was objectively unreasonable, and that Garrus is entitled to habeas relief. Accordingly, we will reverse the order of the District Court.

I.

On February 10, 2000, Garrus was at the home of his girlfriend, Toi Bryant, with whom he has a daughter, when Bryant's ex-boyfriend, Charles Goode, showed up at the residence. Shortly after Goode arrived, an argument ensued between him and Bryant involving their child. As the argument escalated, Garrus took his daughter upstairs. He later returned downstairs to the kitchen where Goode and Bryant were arguing. After Garrus and Goode exchanged some heated words, a fight broke out between the two men. Garrus picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed Goode several times in the chest area. Goode broke away from Garrus and ran upstairs to the bathroom. Garrus left the home. When police arrived, both Goode and Bryant identified Garrus as the attacker. Goode later died from his injuries.

Following a jury trial in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, Garrus was convicted on March 9, 2001, of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. A conviction for voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment. 18 Pa. Cons.Stat. §§ 1103, 2503(c). However, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (the “Commonwealth”) notified the trial court that it would seek a sentencing enhancement under Pennsylvania's “three strikes” law, which requires a judge to sentence a defendant to a minimum term of 25 years' imprisonment (and a maximum of up to life imprisonment) if the defendant was previously convicted of two or more separate “crimes of violence.” 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 9714. “Crimes of violence” may include first degree burglary (defined as, inter alia, burglary of an occupied structure), but do not include second degree burglary (defined as, inter alia, burglary of an unoccupied structure).2

On April 30, 2001, the trial court held the first of two sentencing hearings. The Commonwealth offered evidence that Garrus had three prior convictions for “crimes of violence:” (1) a January 1995 conviction for first-degree robbery; (2) a February 1995 conviction for first-degree robbery; and (3) a February 1997 plea and conviction for second-degree burglary. The Commonwealth argued that although Garrus had only pled guilty to second degree burglary in 1997, the trial court should consider a police report and witness statements regarding that burglary to find instead that the building Garrus had burglarized in 1997 was occupied. On the basis of the police report and witness statements, the trial court found at the second sentencing hearing on May 8, 2001, that Garrus's prior 1997 conviction for second-degree burglary constituted a crime of violence under § 9714. Commonwealth v. Garrus, June Term 2000 No. 0092, slip op. at 17 (Phila.Cnty.Ct.Com.Pl. Jan. 16, 2002). Additionally, it found that the two 1995 robberies constituted two separate crimes of violence, and that his conviction for voluntary manslaughter was his fourth crime of violence. Id. The trial court sentenced Garrus to a term of 25 to 50 years' imprisonment. Id.

Garrus appealed his conviction and sentence to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.3 He argued that, by definition, his 1997 second-degree burglary conviction did not constitute a “crime of violence” under Pennsylvania's “three strikes” law. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania adopted the trial court's opinion in its entirety. Commonwealth v. Garrus, No. 2592 EDA 2001, 815 A.2d 1125 (Pa.Super.Ct. Oct. 18, 2002). The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted Garrus's petition seeking allocatur on the sole issue of Garrus's sentence, Commonwealth v. Garrus, 572 Pa. 438, 817 A.2d 455 (2003), but later dismissed the appeal in September 2003 as having been improvidently granted. Commonwealth v. Garrus, 574 Pa. 655, 832 A.2d 1063 (2003).

In April 2004, Garrus filed a pro se petition for postconviction relief in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, pursuant to Pennsylvania's Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 9541 et seq., challenging his sentence. He argued that the trial court, at sentencing, violated his constitutional rights, as articulated in Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476, 120 S.Ct. 2348, by relying on the police report and victim statement to determine that his 1997 burglary conviction was a “crime of violence” under Pennsylvania's “three strikes” law. Garrus also asserted that state law required his two 1995 robbery convictions to be considered as one “crime of violence” under the “three strikes” law. As a result, Garrus claimed that he had, at most, one prior conviction for a “crime of violence,” rendering him ineligible for the 25–year mandatory minimum sentence he had received.

Garrus's PCRA petition was dismissed in February 2005. A month later, the Supreme Court rendered a decision in Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005), in which the Court held that a sentencing court is not permitted to consider police reports in determining whether a prior conviction constituted a “violent crime” under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924, a federal recidivism statute. Id. at 16, 26, 125 S.Ct. 1254.

On appeal from the denial of his PCRA petition, Garrus argued that the sentencingcourt's consideration of the police report and victim statement, with respect to his 1997 burglary conviction, violated his rights under Apprendi and Shepard, and he again argued that his two 1995 robbery convictions constituted one “crime of violence.” The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the denial of his PCRA petition. Commonwealth v. Garrus, No. 961 EDA 2005, 902 A.2d 976 (Pa.Super.Ct. Apr. 18, 2006). In its opinion, the Superior Court acknowledged that Apprendi requires that “any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be charged in an indictment, submitted to a jury, and proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 8–9 (quoting Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476, 120 S.Ct. 2348). However, it determined that the prior conviction exception permitted the sentencing judge to find that Garrus had burglarized an occupied building despite his plea to the contrary, and to sentence him beyond the statutory maximum accordingly. The Superior Court also determined that the Supreme Court's decision in Shepard did not affect the validity of the prior conviction exception established in Apprendi. Finally, on the basis that the 1997 burglary constituted a “crime of violence,” the Superior Court declined to reach the issue of whether the two 1995 robberies constituted separate crimes. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied Garrus's petition seeking further appellate review. Commonwealth v. Garrus, 588 Pa. 776, 906 A.2d 539 (Pa. Aug. 29, 2006) (table...

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