James Graham v. State of West Virginia

• Decision Date: 13 May 1912
• Docket Number: No. 721,721
• Citation: 224 U.S. 616,56 L.Ed. 917,32 S.Ct. 583
• Parties: JAMES H. GRAHAM, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

224 U.S. 616

32 S.Ct. 583

56 L.Ed. 917

JAMES H. GRAHAM, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.

No. 721.

Argued April 17, 1912.

Decided May 13, 1912.

Messrs. D. W. Baker, Frank J. Hogan, Everett F. Moore, and D. B. Evans for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 617-620 intentionally omitted] Mr. William G. Conley, Attorney General of West Virginia, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the court:

In April, 1898, the plaintiff in error, James H. Graham, then known as John H. Ratliff, was indicted for grand larceny in Pocahontas county, West Virginia, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for two years. In April, 1901, under the name of Ratliff, he was indicted for burglary in Pocahontas county, West Virginia, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years. In October, 1906, he was granted a parole by the governor of West Virginia upon condition that he should pursue the course of a lawabiding citizen. In September, 1907, under the name of John H. Graham alias J. H. Gray, he was indicted in Wood county, West Virginia, for grand larceny, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for five years.

In February, 1908, the prosecuting attorney for Marshall county, in which the penitentiary was located, presented an information to the circuit court of that county, alleging that the convict Graham was the same man who had twice before been convicted as above stated. Graham was brought before the court, and pleaded that he was not the same person. Later he withdrew his plea, moved to quash the information, and on denial of the motion renewed the plea. A jury was called, and after hearing evidence for the prosecutor the defendant offering none, returned a verdict identifying him as the person previously convicted. Thereupon the defendant moved for arrest of judgment upon the ground that the proceeding was in violation of the Constitution of the state, and also contrary to the 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution of the United States. The motion was overruled and the court sentenced the prisoner to confinement in the penitentiary for life. The judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia. 68 W. Va. 248, —L.R.A. (N.S.) —, 69 S. E. 1010. And the case comes here on error.

The proceeding was taken under §§ 1 to 5 of chapter 165 of the Code of West Virginia, which are as follows:

'1. All criminal proceedings against comvicts in the penitentiary shall be in the circuit court of the county of Marshall.

'2. When a prisoner convicted of an offense, and sentenced to confinement therefor in the penitentiary, is received therein, if he was before sentenced to a like punishment, and the record of his conviction does not show that he has been sentenced under the 23d or 24th section of chapter 152, the superintendent of the penitentiary shall give information thereof, without delay, to the said circuit court of the county of Marshall, whether it be alleged or not in the indictment on which he was so convicted, that he had been before sentenced to a like punishment.

'3. The said court shall cause the convict to be brought before it, and upon an information filed, setting forth the several records of conviction, and alleging the identity of the prisoner with the person named in each, shall require the convict named to say whether he is the same person or not.

'4. If he say he is not, or remain silent, his plea, or the fact of his silence, shall be entered of record, and a jury shall be empaneled to inquire whether the convict is the same person mentioned in the several records.

'5. If the jury find that he is not the same person, he shall be remanded to the penitentiary; but if they find that he is the same person, or if he acknowledge in open court, after being duly cautioned, that he is the same person, the court shall sentence him to such further confinement as is prescribed by chapter 152, on a second or third conviction, as the case may be.'

The provisions of §§ 23 and 24 of chapter 152, to which the above statute refers, are:

'23. When any person in convicted of an offense and sentenced to confinement therefor in the penitentiary, and it is alleged in the indictment on which he is convicted, and admitted, or by the jury found, that he had been before sentenced in the United States to a like punishment, he shall be sentenced to be confined five years in addition to the time to which he is or would be otherwise sentenced.'

'24. When any such convict shall have been twice before sentenced in the United States to confinement in a penitentiary, he shall be sentenced to be confined in the penitentiary for life.'

These statutes were derived from the laws which were in force in Virginia before West Virginia was created, and formed part of the Code of Virginia of 1860, chap. 199, which in turn had been taken from the Code of 1849, chap. 199.

The plaintiff in error challenges the validity of the legislation and the proceedings which it authorized, upon the grounds: (1) that he has been deprived of his liberty without due process of law; (2) that he has been denied the equal protection of the laws; (3) that his privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States have been abridged, and that he has been denied his immunity from double jeopardy; and (4) that cruel and unusual punishment has been inflicted.

1. The propriety of inflicting severer punishment upon old offenders has long been recognized in this country and in England. They are not punished the second time for the earlier offense, but the repetition of criminal conduct aggravates their guilt and justifies heavier penalties when they are again convicted. Statutes providing for such increased punishment were enacted in Virginia and New York as early as 1796 and in Massachusetts in 1804; and there have been numerous acts of similar import in many states. This legislation has uniformly been sustained in the state courts (Ross's Case, 2 Pick. 165, 170; Plumbly v. Com. 2 Met. 413, 415; Com. v. Richardson, 175 Mass. 202, 205, 55 N. E. 988; Rand v. Com. 9 Gratt. 740, 741; King v. Lynn, 90 Va. 345, 347, 18 S. E. 439; People v. Stanley, 47 Cal. 114, 17 Am. Rep. 401; People v. Coleman, 145 Cal. 609, 79 Pac. 283; Ingalls v. State, 48 Wis. 647, 4 N. W. 785; Maguire v. State, 47 Md. 485; State v. Austin, 113 Mo. 538, 21 S. W. 31), and it has been held by this court not to be repugnant to the Federal Constitution. Moore v. Missouri, 159 U. S. 673, 40 L. ed. 301, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 179; McDonald v. Massachusetts, 180 U. S. 311, 45 L. ed. 542, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 389.

In the McDonald Case, the statute (Mass. Stat. 1887, chap. 435, § 1) provided that whenever one had been twice convicted of crime and committed to prison in Massachusetts, or in any other state, he should, upon conviction of a subsequent felony, be deemed to be an 'habitual criminal,' and should be punished by imprisonment for twenty-five years. In delivering the opinion of the court, Mr. Justice Gray said (p. 312):

'The fundamental mistake of the plaintiff in error is his assumption that the judgment below imposes an additional punishment on crimes for which he had already been convicted and punished in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire.

'But it does no such thing. . . . The punishment is for the new crime only, but is the heavier if he is an habitual criminal. . . . The allegation of previous convictions is not a distinct charge of crimes, but is necessary to bring the case within the statute, and goes to the punishment only.'

In the present case, it was not charged in the indictment on which the prisoner was last tried that he had previously been convicted of other offenses, but after judgment he was brought before the court of another county, in a separate proceeding instituted by information, and on the finding of the jury that he was the former convict, he was sentenced to the additional punishment which the statute in such case prescribed.

By this proceeding he was not held to answer for an offense; the information did not allege crime. As was said by the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia: 'It [the information] alleges that he has been held to answer for crime, and that he stands convicted of it through the indictment of a grand jury. It points him out as a convict already held, upon whom rests the general sentence of the law of life imprisonment. . . . The proceedings under the statute are for identification only. They are clearly not for the establishment of guilt. The question of guilt is not reopened.' opened.' 68 W. Va. 248, 251, ——L.R.A. (N.S.) —, 69 S.E. 1010. Full opportunity was accorded to the prisoner to meet the allegation of former conviction. Plainly, the statute contemplated a valid conviction which had not been set aside or the consequences of which had not been removed by absolute pardon. No question as to this can be raised here, for the prisoner in no way sought to contest the validity or unimpaired character of the former judgments, but pleaded that he was not the person who had thus been convicted. On this issue he had due hearing before a jury.

It cannot be said that the prisoner was deprived of due process of law because the question as to former conviction was passed upon separately. While it is familiar practice to set forth in the indictment the fact of prior conviction of another offense, and to submit to the jury the evidence upon that issue, together with that relating to the commission of the crime which the indictment charges, still in its nature it is a distinct issue, and it may appropriately be the subject of separate determination. Provision for a separate and subsequent determination of his identity with the former convict has not been regarded as a deprivation of any fundamental right. It was established by statute in England that, although the fact was alleged in the indictment, the evidence of the former conviction should...