Beck v. State
| Decision Date | 31 May 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. CR,CR |
| Citation | 876 S.W.2d 561,317 Ark. 154 |
| Parties | Christopher BECK, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 94-103. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Robert E. Hough, Jr., Fort Smith, for appellant.
Vada Berger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
This is an interlocutory appeal from an order of the Sebastian County Circuit Court denying a motion to transfer to juvenile court charges filed against the minor appellant-defendant, Christopher Beck, who is charged with the Class Y felony of having knowingly discharged a firearm from a vehicle and caused serious bodily injury. Two points have been raised for reversal: (1) whether Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) (Repl.1993)--which grants the prosecuting attorney, when a case involves a juvenile sixteen years of age or older at the time of the commission of a felony offense, "discretion to file a petition in juvenile court alleging delinquency or to file charges in circuit court and to prosecute as an adult"--violates federal and state constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection; and (2) whether the circuit court's denial of the motion to transfer was clearly erroneous. Neither issue has merit, and we affirm the decision of the circuit court.
The appellant, Christopher Beck, was charged by information on October 25, 1993, with the crime of knowingly discharging a firearm from a vehicle and causing serious physical injury in violation of Ark.Code Ann. § 5-74-107 (Repl.1993). The victim of the drive-by shooting, Kenyatta Williams, a fourteen-year-old, was wounded in the neck. He sustained injury to the spinal cord which left him paralyzed. A quadriplegic, Kenyatta has lost control of his limbs and bodily functions from the neck down and hence is unable to care for himself.
Beck had originally been arrested and charged with battery on October 22, 1993. He was brought before a municipal judge on October 23, 1993. Bail was set at $125,000. By direct filing of a felony information on October 25, 1993, the prosecuting attorney charged Beck with unlawfully discharging a firearm from a vehicle and causing serious physical injury to Kenyatta Williams. On October 27, 1993, Beck pleaded not guilty and filed a motion to transfer his case to juvenile court.
A hearing was set for December 8, 1993, but prior to that date, Beck requested that the court determine whether Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(e) was unconstitutionally violative of due process and equal protection guarantees. At the conclusion of the December 8 hearing, the circuit court declined to issue a ruling on either the transfer or the constitutional question but instead allowed the parties ten days in which to present briefs and argument in that regard.
Following a motion to reopen the hearing by the state on December 13, 1993, to which Beck objected, the circuit court held a further hearing on December 17, 1993. The prosecution was allowed to present more witnesses and to play a videotape representing the victim's condition. Thereafter, the circuit court ruled that the statute was constitutional and denied the transfer motion. A notice of interlocutory appeal was filed on January 4, 1994.
Interlocutory appeals come within this court's purview pursuant to Rule 1-2(a)(12) of the Rules of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the State of Arkansas. Under Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(h) (Repl.1993), "Any party may appeal from an order granting or denying the transfer of a case from one court to another court having jurisdiction over the [juvenile] matter."
Given the interlocutory character of this appeal, we would not, under ordinary circumstances, consider the constitutional challenge to Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(e). For instance, in another juvenile transfer case, we declined to address an argument based on res judicata and collateral estoppel partly because no ruling had been obtained below and, in addition, because no authority had been cited under which the issue could have been decided on interlocutory appeal even had the point been properly preserved. Slay v. State, 309 Ark. 507, 832 S.W.2d 217 (1992).
Here, however, the situation is different. The constitutional question was fully briefed at both the circuit court level and on appeal, and the circuit court specifically found the transfer statute constitutional.
Beck attacks, in particular, the constitutionality of Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) on the grounds that the statute violates the due process and equal protection clauses of both the United States and Arkansas Constitutions. The statutory section in question provides:
When a case involves a juvenile age sixteen (16) years or above at the time the alleged delinquent act occurred and the alleged act would constitute a felony if committed by an adult, the prosecuting attorney has the discretion to file a petition in juvenile court alleging delinquency or to file charges in circuit court and to prosecute as an adult.
Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) (Repl.1993). Beck asserts that the right to confidentiality afforded juveniles prosecuted under the Juvenile Code is denied to those charged as adults. He further claims that the statute elsewhere arbitrarily sub-classifies juveniles according to different age categories and that the legislature's decision not to protect the identity of juveniles charged with particular crimes is arbitrary and irrational and thus a denial of equal protection. In addition, he claims that he is denied due process because Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) allows the prosecutor to deprive him of the confidentiality provided by the Juvenile Code without offering him the opportunity to be heard.
All legislation is presumed to be constitutionally valid, and all doubt is resolved in favor of constitutionality. Snyder v. Martin, 305 Ark. 128, 806 S.W.2d 358 (1991); Duhon v. State, 299 Ark. 503, 774 S.W.2d 830 (1989). A party challenging a statute must bear the burden of proving it unconstitutional. Carney v. State, 305 Ark. 431, 808 S.W.2d 755 (1991); Duhon v. State, supra; Holland v. Willis, 293 Ark. 518, 739 S.W.2d 529 (1987). We are not convinced by the arguments, authorities, or theories advanced by Beck that Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) is unconstitutional.
We have previously held that if a classification exists in an Arkansas statute and that classification has a rational basis and is neither unreasonable nor arbitrary, the statute will not be struck down on equal protection grounds. Carney v. State, supra. In Carney, where we rejected an equal protection claim that a statute was unconstitutional in providing for the suspension of driver's licenses of persons under eighteen years of age who were convicted of drug- or alcohol-related offenses (while those older were not affected), we noted that the state's authority to supervise the conduct of children is broader than its power over similar actions by adults. Thus, we found the drawing of the penalty line at age eighteen neither irrational nor arbitrary.
Similarly, in the present case, the decision of the legislature to vest prosecuting attorneys with the discretion to bring felony charges against sixteen-year-olds in circuit courts is neither arbitrary nor irrational. The well-documented rise in the violent crime rate among juveniles in recent years clearly prompted the legislature to make the option of trying sixteen-year-olds as adults available to the state. Indeed, Act 1189 of 1993, § 1, declares that:
The General Assembly of the State of Arkansas finds that the State of Arkansas is experiencing an increase in violent crime committed by school age juveniles and the growth of street gangs made up largely of school age juveniles.
See, for an analogous statement of intent, the language quoted from the emergency clause appended to Act 793 of 1981 in Ashing v. State, 288 Ark. 75, 702 S.W.2d 20 (1986). Simply put, Beck has failed to demonstrate why these conclusions by the legislature are irrational or arbitrary.
As for Beck's contention that he is deprived of due process through the deprivation of his right to confidentiality under the Juvenile Code, it should be noted that the Juvenile Code itself explicitly exempts from the guarantee of confidentiality those instances when "[t]he arrest or the proceedings under this subchapter result in the juvenile being formally charged in circuit court for a felony." Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-352(a)(2) (Repl.1993). A pre-deprivation hearing, to which Beck insists he is entitled, is unnecessary in view of the governmental interest outlined above. See Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976).
Beck also challenges the constitutionality of Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c) as applied, asserting that it gives prosecutors "unbridled discretion" and usurps the deliberative function of the court provided for elsewhere in the same statute. Apart, however, from a vague reference to other Beck supplies no citation of authority to support his speculative argument. We do not consider such deficient contentions on appeal. Tisdale v. State, 311 Ark. 220, 843 S.W.2d 803 (1992).
For his second point for reversal, Beck advances the claim that the circuit court's decision to deny the motion to transfer was clearly erroneous because all of the evidence clearly and convincingly showed that the case should be transferred to juvenile court. This argument is divided into two sub-points.
Beck contends that the trial court abused its discretion by granting the prosecutor's motion to hold an additional hearing on the motion to transfer and by admitting various items into evidence at that hearing. We hold that that circuit court's actions did not constitute an abuse of discretion.
During the first transfer hearing, on December 8, 1993, the state presented the testimony of one witness and introduced into...
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