Coleman v. State of Ala.

• Decision Date: 21 September 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-7151,86-7151
• Citation: 827 F.2d 1469
• Parties: Charles COLEMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. STATE OF ALABAMA, Respondent-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1469

827 F.2d 1469

Charles COLEMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. STATE OF ALABAMA, Respondent-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.

No. 86-7151.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eleventh Circuit.

Sept. 21, 1987.

Robert B. Donworth, Jr., Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham, Ala., for petitioner-appellant, cross-appellee.

Donald Siegelman, Atty. Gen., James B. Prude, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for respondent-appellee, cross-appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before VANCE and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges, and BROWN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge.

BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge:

Coleman filed this petition for federal habeas corpus to set aside his guilty pleas to assault with intent to murder in 1972 and larceny from a person in 1977, because he was not informed of the possible availability of the Alabama Youthful Offender Act. ¹ Coleman argues that his pleas of guilty were not made with full knowledge of their consequences and thus were made in violation of his federal due process rights. Although Coleman has satisfied both the 1972 and 1977 probationary sentences, he maintains this challenge to their constitutionality arguing that if adjudged a youthful offender, that adjudication is not a criminal conviction for enhancement purposes. These two prior convictions were used under Alabama's Habitual Offender Act to enhance his 1982 conviction for robbery.

The District Court accepted Coleman's argument that his plea was constitutionally flawed and granted habeas corpus for the 1977 charge, but denied his petition on the 1972 charge reasoning that the benefits of the Alabama Youthful Offender Act were unavailable to Coleman because, although it became effective prior to Coleman's plea arraignment it was not in effect when Coleman committed the 1972 crime. We affirm the District Court's grant of habeas corpus for the 1977 conviction and reverse its denial of the writ for the 1972 conviction. The Act was in effect at the time Coleman entered his guilty pleas and was available to him. Failure to inform him of the possibility of youthful offender treatment precluded him from having constitutionally sufficient knowledge of the effect of his guilty plea.

The 1972 Offense

Coleman was arrested for assault with intent to murder prior to the effective date of the Alabama Youthful Offender Act on February 10, 1972 at the age of 16. He was not indicted until after the Act came into effect. At the time he entered his guilty plea, the trial Judge explained the charge to him as well as the constitutional rights he waived by pleading guilty. The trial judge testified at the evidentiary habeas hearing that although he did not recall accepting Coleman's guilty plea, his normal procedure was to go over the material on the Ireland form ² with the defendant. ³ The Ireland form used in accepting Coleman's plea in 1972, and also in 1977, failed to inform him of the possibility of youthful offender treatment. Coleman received three years of probation for this offense.

The 1977 Offense

In 1977, Coleman was charged with robbery, but was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser included offense of larceny from a person. Coleman appeared before the same Judge and again signed an Ireland form articulating the rights he waived by pleading guilty. Although the form was for robbery, the Magistrate and District Court found that Coleman was informed of the elements and sentencing limits for larceny from a person to which he was sentenced to four years probation. Again, Coleman was not informed of the provisions of the Alabama Youthful Offender Act.

The 1982 Offense

In 1982, Coleman pleaded guilty to robbery in the third degree which has a maximum sentence of ten years. The sentencing Judge, under the Alabama Habitual Offender Act, used Coleman's 1972 and 1977 convictions to enhance his sentence to 15 years. The 1972 and 1977 convictions challenged here were also used to enhance Coleman's 1983 sentence for forgery in the second degree for which he received a twenty-three year sentence. Coleman has not challenged these enhanced sentences before this Court, but only the two underlying sentences from 1972 and 1977.

Federal Habeas Proceedings

After exhausting his state remedies, ⁴ Coleman filed this petition for habeas corpus alleging that his 1972 and 1977 guilty pleas were not freely and voluntarily made and could not be used to enhance his present sentence under Alabama's Habitual Offender Act. The Magistrate recommended that Coleman's writ of habeas corpus be granted for both his 1972 and 1977 convictions. The Magistrate's recommendation on the 1972 conviction was premised on his conclusion that Coleman was entitled to juvenile status and was improperly sentenced as an adult. The Magistrate's further recommendation that the writ be granted for the 1977 conviction came from the court's failure to inform Coleman that he was entitled to be considered for youthful offender treatment under Alabama law. The Magistrate reasoned that although informing Coleman of the Youthful Offender Act was required by statute, it was procedural in nature and was not a violation of Coleman's due process rights. Nevertheless, the Magistrate recommended the writ issue on the basis of an equal protection violation because other defendants in Coleman's position were informed of the possibility of youthful offender treatment.

Following an independent review of the transcripts, the District Court accepted the Magistrate's findings of fact and granted Coleman's petition for his 1977 conviction. The Court did this on the basis that "[t]he failure to comply with the statutory scheme adopted by the legislature of the State of Alabama deprived [Coleman] of due process with respect to the conviction and sentence in [1977]." Coleman v. White, No. C.V. 85-A-852-S (N.D.Ala. Feb. 20, 1986).

The District Court rejected the Magistrate's recommendation to grant habeas relief for the 1972 conviction. It concluded that the Magistrate misapplied the Juvenile Code and that Coleman could not receive youthful offender treatment for a crime which occurred prior to the effective date of the Act.

The Youthful Offender Act

The Alabama Youthful Offender Act provides that "the court, in its discretion, may direct that the defendant be arraigned as a youthful offender, and no further action shall be taken on the indictment or information." Ala.Code Sec. 15-19-1. Judge Wisdom, writing for the Fifth Circuit, described the Alabama Youthful Offender Act as "humanistic, protective, and rehabilitative in purpose in providing an intermediate procedure for youths falling between juvenile and adult.... [T]he intent of the Act is to destigmatize, to rehabilitate, and to give youths another chance, vouchsafing them from some of the awful consequences attaching to a criminal conviction." Raines v. Alabama, 552 F.2d 660, 665 (5th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 973, 98 S.Ct. 529, 54 L.Ed.2d 464 (1978). ⁵

The Alabama Youthful Offender statute does not create a new criminal act, rather it creates a new method of adjudicating existing criminal acts of youths, who would otherwise be sentenced as adults, without casting the enduring burdens associated with a criminal conviction at a young and perhaps immature time. The Youthful Offender Act provides a second chance and a fresh start to those who are eligible.

Under the Alabama version, which was modeled on the New York statute, youthful offender treatment is entrusted to the discretion of the trial Judge. If youthful offender treatment is granted, the original indictment or information is set aside and the defendant is tried by the Judge as a Youthful Offender. Ala.Code Sec. 15-19-1. Punishment is provided for by the statute as suspending sentence, probation, a fine, or no more than three years in the custody of the board of corrections. Ala.Code Sec. 15-19-6. Adjudication as a youthful offender may not be deemed a criminal conviction so as to disqualify an individual from public office or employment, forfeit any rights or hold any license. Further, the records are not open to public inspection, but may be inspected at the Court's discretion. Ala.Code Sec. 15-19-7.

Due Process and the Plea of the Youthful Offender

Before a Judge can accept a defendant's guilty plea, the Judge must determine that the plea is made voluntarily and with full knowledge of its effect. Henderson v. Morgan, 426 U.S. 637, 96 S.Ct. 2253, 49 L.Ed.2d 108 (1976); Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). "Several federal constitutional rights are involved in a waiver that takes place when a plea of guilty is entered in a state criminal trial." Boykin, 395 U.S. at 243, 89 S.Ct. at 1712, 23 L.Ed.2d at 279. In order to validly waive these constitutional rights, the defendant must be fully informed of what rights he is waiving and the effect of pleading guilty to the charge. One of the most lasting effects of a defendant's plea of guilty is the type and term of sentence he may receive and the lasting effects of that sentence.

Boykin stands for the proposition that a defendant is constitutionally entitled to have information concerning the range of punishment prescribed by the act to which he may be sentenced and the consequences of the conviction at the time he enters his plea. "The standard was and remains whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant." North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 31, 91 S.Ct. 160, 164, 27 L.Ed.2d 162, 168 (1970).

One of the options available to Coleman of which he--and apparently everyone else involved--was unaware was his right to request youthful offender consideration. With all the benefits of the Youthful Offender Act and particularly the privilege of not being sentenced as an adult criminal, Coleman was certainly entitled to know that he had the possibility of these favorable...