Brice v. State

• Decision Date: 16 January 2003
• Docket Number: No. 468, 2002.,468, 2002.
• Citation: 815 A.2d 314
• Parties: Miles BRICE and Leon Caulk, Defendants Below, Appellants, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Delaware

815 A.2d 314

Miles BRICE and Leon Caulk, Defendants Below, Appellants, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

No. 468, 2002.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: November 26, 2002.

Decided: January 16, 2003.

Joseph A. Gabay, Wilmington and Neil R. Lapinski, Swartz, Campbell & Detweiler, Wilmington, for Appellant Miles Brice.

Kevin J. O'Connell, Wilmington, for Appellant Leon Caulk.

William M. Kelleher, Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice, Wilmington, for Appellee.

Before VEASEY, Chief Justice, WALSH, HOLLAND, BERGER, and STEELE, Justices, constituting the Court En Banc. WALSH, Justice:

Defendants Miles Brice ("Brice") and Leon Caulk ("Caulk") (collectively the "Defendants") await trial for first-degree murder, and the State intends to seek the death penalty as to each of them. In light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), and the General Assembly's subsequent amendment to 11 Del. C. § 4209¹ (the "2002 Statute"), we accepted four certified questions pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 41. Brice and Caulk v. State, No. 468, 2002, Walsh, J. (August 30, 2002).

The Defendants have been indicted for two murders that occurred prior to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ring and the General Assembly's 2002 amendment to Section 4209. The Defendants argue, on various grounds, that the 2002 Statute is inapplicable to them. After extensive briefing and argument on the certified questions, however, we conclude that Section 4209 is valid and fully applicable to the Defendants. We address each of the certified questions below.

I.

We accepted the following questions of law that were certified to us by the Superior Court:

1. Are the Amendments contained in S.B. 449, 73 Del.Laws c. 423, to Delaware's death penalty statute procedural in nature and therefore not in violation of the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution, Art.1, Section 10? Cf. State v. Cohen, 604 A.2d 846 (Del. 1992).

2. Does the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Ring v. Arizona require that a jury first find the existence of any specific non-statutory aggravating factor before it may be considered by the trial judge?

3. Does the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Ring v. Arizona require that a jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that all aggravating factors found to exist outweigh all mitigating factors found to exist?

4. In the penalty hearing, authorized by 11 Del. C. § 4209(e)(2), may the court constitutionally direct a verdict as to those statutory aggravating circumstances that are necessarily established by conviction of the offenses charged?

A.

The constitutional validity of 11 Del. C. § 4209, as enacted in 1991, was called into question following the decision in Ring. The Arizona statute at issue in Ring permitted the trial judge alone to find the existence of an aggravating factor necessary for the imposition of the death penalty. Ring, 536 U.S. at ___ - ___, 122 S.Ct. at 2434-35. In holding that the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution (hereinafter the "Sixth Amendment") required the jury to make such a finding, the Court attempted to resolve the conflict between Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 111 L.Ed.2d 511 (1990), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).

In Walton, the Court stressed that the Constitution "`does not require that the specific findings authorizing the imposition of the sentence of death be made by the jury.'" Walton, 497 U.S. at 648, 110 S.Ct. 3047 (quoting Hildwin v. Florida, 490 U.S. 638, 640-641, 109 S.Ct. 2055, 2057, 104 L.Ed.2d 728). The Court reasoned that the Sixth Amendment does not require a State "to denominate aggravating circumstances `elements' of the offense or permit only a jury to determine the existence of such circumstances." Walton, 497 U.S. at 649, 110 S.Ct. 3047. Ten years later, however, the Court announced a markedly different rule in Apprendi holding 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." Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348. The Court did not, however, expressly overrule Walton in its Apprendi decision.² Ring resolved this inconsistency by "overrul[ing] Walton to the extent that it allows a sentencing judge, sitting without a jury, to find an aggravating circumstance necessary for imposition of the death penalty." Id. at 2443 (emphasis supplied).

B.

The United States Supreme Court designated Delaware's capital sentencing scheme as a "hybrid system," Ring, 536 U.S. at ___ n. 6, 122 S.Ct. at 2442 n. 6, and thus distinguished our system from Arizona's. The hybrid system, in effect in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, and Alabama, renders a jury's verdict in the punishment phase of a death penalty case advisory and thus not binding upon the judge who is the ultimate sentencer. Florida and Indiana have already addressed some of the myriad issues raised by the Ring decision. See Bottoson v. Moore, 2002 WL 31386790, * (Fla.2002) (per curiam); King v. Moore, 831 So.2d 143, 2002 WL 31386234, * (Fla. 2002) (per curiam); Wrinkles v. State, 776 N.E.2d 905, 2002 WL 31315998, * (Ind. 2002).

Bottoson and King are both brief per curiam opinions followed by concurring opinions by all of the justices of the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court denied Bottoson and King relief on the grounds that the United States Supreme Court denied the petitioners' writs of certiorari and lifted the stays of execution without mentioning Ring in the orders. Bottoson, 2002 WL 31386790 at *1, 833 So.2d 693; King, 2002 WL 31386234 at *1, 831 So.2d 143.³ Additionally, the Florida justices noted that the United States Supreme Court has consistently upheld Florida's death penalty statute, and that the Court did not address Florida's statute in Ring. Accordingly, the Florida Supreme Court held that Ring was inapplicable to the Florida statute. Bottoson, 2002 WL 31386790, at *1, 833 So.2d 693; King, 2002 WL 31386234, at *1, 831 So.2d 143.⁴

The Indiana Supreme Court addressed the effect of Ring on its statute in Wrinkles v. State, 776 N.E.2d at 907. In Wrinkles, the petitioner sought successive postconviction relief of his conviction and sentence in light of, inter alia, the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ring. Id. at 906. Wrinkles was charged with murdering three people and the jury convicted him of all three murders in the guilt phase of the trial. Id. The State sought the death penalty, alleging as the aggravating circumstance that Wrinkles had committed multiple murders. Id. The jury unanimously recommended death, and the sentencing judge accepted the jury's recommendation. 776 N.E.2d at 906.

Through his postconviction appeal, Wrinkles argued that Ring invalidated Indiana's death penalty scheme.⁵ He claimed that his sentence was invalid because there was not a specific jury verdict, beyond a reasonable doubt, that found the existence of an aggravating circumstance, i.e., that Wrinkles had committed multiple murders. Id. at 907. The Indiana Supreme Court found no need to decide whether Ring applied to Indiana's death penalty scheme because it determined that Ring was not implicated in Wrinkles' case. Id. More specifically, the court found that the jury's verdict that the defendant was guilty of all three murders, "necessarily means that the jury found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that petitioner had committed more than one murder." Id. Thus, the court found the aggravating circumstance was established beyond a reasonable doubt by the jury's verdict at the guilt phase. 776 N.E.2d at 908.

C.

In response to the Ring decision, the General Assembly of the State of Delaware amended 11 Del. C. § 4209. 73 Del. Laws c. 423 (2002), S.B. 449. The 2002 Statute transformed the jury's role, at the so-called narrowing phase, from one that was advisory under the 1991 version of Section 4209 into one that is now determinative as to the existence of any statutory aggravating circumstances. S.B. 449, Synopsis. ("This Act will bar the Court from imposing a death sentence unless a jury (unless waived by the parties) first determines unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one statutory aggravating circumstance exists."). The final sentencing decision, however, remains with the judge. Id. ("The Court will continue to be responsible for ultimately determining the sentence to be imposed, after weighing all relevant evidence presented in aggravation or mitigation which bears upon the particular circumstances or details of the offenses and the character and propensities of the offender.").

It is against this backdrop that we address the four certified questions.

II.

As to Certified Question No. 1:

Senate Bill 449 provides that "[The 2002 Statute] shall apply to all defendants tried, re-tried, sentenced or re-sentenced after its effective date." S.B. 449, § 6. The Defendants argue that the application of the 2002 Statute to them would violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. They argue that S.B. 449 represents a substantive change in Section 4209, and is retrospective and disadvantageous to them. Conversely, the State argues that S.B. 449 represents a mere procedural change to Section 4209 and thus cannot violate the Ex Post Facto Clause.

Article I, Section 10, of the United States Constitution provides that "No State shall ... pass any ... ex post facto Law...." U.S. CONST. art. I, § 10. The prohibition against ex post facto laws applies only to retroactive penal statutes that disadvantage a defendant. Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 41, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 111 L.Ed.2d 30 (1990).⁶ The United States Supreme Court has drawn a distinction between substantive and procedural ex post facto laws....