Commonwealth v. Button
| Decision Date | 03 August 1984 |
| Citation | 332 Pa.Super. 239,481 A.2d 342 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. James Michael BUTTON, Appellant. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Roger F. BUTTON, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Argued March 21, 1984. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Robert E. Dalton, Public Defender, Wellsboro for appellant.
James E. Carlson, Dist. Atty., Wellsboro, for Commonwealth appellee.
Before SPAETH, President Judge, and BECK and TAMILIA, JJ.
This consolidated appeal arises out of one incident involving two defendants and a double homicide. Appellants, James Michael Button and Roger Button, entered pleas of guilty to two counts each of murder generally. The degree of guilt was set by the court at first degree in both instances and each appellant was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Sentences on appellants' pleas of guilty to robbery and conspiracy charges were suspended pending the outcome of the appeals on the homicide convictions. Appellants now challenge all aspects of the ordered disposition and in so doing raise two issues of first impression in this Commonwealth.
On the evening of February 11, 1982 appellants perpetrated the bludgeoning deaths of Ross Cummings and Robert Southard, both disabled, and aged 74 and 59 respectively. The main purpose of the act was to obtain money, but the deaths of the victims were anticipated and in fact planned to prevent identification, as evidenced by Roger Button's prior statement of intent made to an acquaintance. Appellants had in the past performed day labor for the victims, knew their habits and lay in wait for them to arrive at the barn where they were to be killed.
Appellants' initial attack upon the sentences imposed is mounted against the extent to which the court may interpret sentencing law in fashioning an appropriate penalty.
Abuse of discretion in sentencing is defined in terms of either a manifestly excessive sentence or one which exceeds the prescribed statutory limit. Commonwealth v. Owens, 315 Pa.Super. 400, 462 A.2d 255 (1983). Appellants contend that in both of these respects their consecutive life sentences constitute abuse of discretion. Specifically it is alleged that because 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711, which governs procedure in cases of first degree murder, does not expressly provide for the imposition of consecutive life terms, such sentences are illegal. However, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9757 does address the issue of consecutive sentences for multiple offenses. The question then becomes one of statutory interpretation and is governed by the Pennsylvania Statutory Construction Act, 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1501 et seq.
Section 1932 of the Act speaks directly to the point at issue:
(a) Statutes or parts of statutes are in pari materia when they relate to the same persons or things or to the same class of persons or things. (b) Statutes in pari materia shall be construed together, if possible, as one statute.
It does not require a quantum leap in logic to find that § 9711 and § 9757 of the Sentencing Act are in pari materia, and we do so find. See generally Commonwealth v. Lobiondo, 501 Pa. 599, 462 A.2d 662 (1983); Commonwealth v. Johnson, 368 Pa. 139, 81 A.2d 569 (1951).
This result finds an analogue in cases where a (mandatory) consecutive life sentence is imposed upon a person already serving a life term who is convicted of assault by a life prisoner, Commonwealth v. Bryant, 239 Pa.Super. 43, 361 A.2d 350 (1976), or where definite terms consecutive to a life sentence are imposed for offenses other than murder, Commonwealth v. Burgess, 500 Pa. 224, 455 A.2d 631 (1983) (); Commonwealth v. Boyd, 271 Pa.Super. 88, 412 A.2d 588 (1979) (); Commonwealth v. Maddox, 307 Pa.Super. 524, 453 A.2d 1010 (1982) (burglary). If, as appellants assert, consecutive life sentences are not implicated much less mandated by the sentencing statute, then the discretion of the trial court is necessarily the controlling factor. See Commonwealth v. Burtner, 307 Pa.Super. 230, 453 A.2d 10 (1982).
We may derive some guidance too from the fact that in at least seven other jurisdictions [1] consecutive life sentences have been imposed without challenge, and that in two other jurisdictions such sentences have withstood constitutional attack. Crawford v. State, 236 Ga. 491, 224 S.E.2d 365 (1976); Chavigny v. State, 163 So.2d 47 (1964) Fla.App.
Further, despite the obvious limitations dictated by human mortality, there is no statutory provision restricting the length of possible sentences. As the ABA Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures (Approved Draft 1968) observes:
In short, the uniqueness of the statutory homicide provisions, which in appellants' view limits the flexibility of the court in pronouncing sentence, refers only to the type of penalty deemed appropriate by the legislature. Beyond this the court's discretion is subject to no limitation other than that inherent in the term "manifestly excessive" which is inapplicable here. In fact,
"where the statute provides that the punishment for murder may be death, life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term not less than a specified number of years, a sentence for a definite term may be fixed without reference to the expectancy of life of the accused, and may be for a period not only in excess of his life expectancy but even beyond the extent of the human span of life; and this is true not withstanding the sentence has the affect of depriving the accused of the benefits of laws relative to probation and parole and not withstanding the objection that it cannot be served within the accused's life time." 41 C.J.S. Homicide § 433.
The actuarial tables of life expectancy have no application in the determination of a mandatory life sentence, as the ultimate crime, according to the legislative scheme, demands punishment stripped of all rehabilitative beneficence. The sentence, then, cannot be said to go beyond the bounds of legislative intent or judicial prerogative. Nor is it, as appellants further argue, excessive vis-a-vis the offenses for which, and the offenders on whom, it was imposed.
Appellants' further argument that the court took insufficient notice of their disadvantaged backgrounds, ages, etc., in fashioning the penalties is somewhat facticious considering the available alternative. It is precisely because the court imposed life sentences rather than ordering the death penalty that due consideration of mitigating factors is quite adequately demonstrated by the trial court. Having found first degree murder to have been committed [2] not once but twice, the trial judge was compelled to sentence on each conviction and to choose one of only two options. By indirect but pointed reference the trial judge indicated his familiarity with and adherence to the provisions of the statutes applicable in the case before him, and the evidence of individualization which led him to choose life over death as appropriate for appellants' sentence. Commonwealth v. McCall, --- Pa.Super. ---, 467 A.2d 631 (1983). Had the homicides occurred under different circumstances, e.g. with some intervening temporal hiatus, or had appellants been tried separately, the objection to the cumulative nature of the sentences would not now be at issue. We cannot hold that an approximation of temporal simultaneity vitiates the fact that murders are separately punishable regardless of the context in which they occurred. Two violations of the homicide statute occurred and although there has in fact been no express allegation that homicides somehow merge, the implication of appellants' argument as to the excessive nature of the sentence leads inexorably to the conclusion that this is indeed the crux of their claim. Since, as has been shown above, sentences for offenses other than murder may without violation of either law or principle be pronounced consecutive to a life term, to deny to the court this disposition in murder cases would serve no purpose but to encourage the commission of successive homicidal acts.
Appellants claim too that the sentence is unenforcible because indefinite, vague, and therefore constitutionally unsound. This exception seems to be based on the language in which the sentencing order is couched, to wit, "the minimum sentence to be served for the total of all offenses with respect to this sentence to be for and during the term of the natural life of the defendant." [3] The Opinion of the trial court in its reference to some difficulty in the interpretation of the Order [4] is used to buttress appellants' position. However, a life sentence is precisely that, for life, and the difficulty in predicting duration has always been, and will no doubt continue to be, a question central to the human condition. Life sentences whether imposed singly or in multiples, have no minimum, so that the impact of this part of the order is solely in reference to appellants' possible future release. Once sentence is pronounced, the length of the sentence effectively passes from the ambit of judicial consideration to that of the executive department, regardless of the wording of the sentence order. Parole, or more properly commutation, is neither a right of the prisoner nor a prerogative of the court, but is a matter within the administrative purview of the Board of Parole. Commonwealth v. Gooslin, 280 Pa.Super. 384, 421 A.2d 775 (1980). In this respect consecutive life sentences...
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