JLN v. State

• Decision Date: 25 October 2002
• Parties: J.L.N. v. STATE of Alabama.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

894 So.2d 738

J.L.N. v. STATE of Alabama.

CR-00-2209.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

October 25, 2002.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing January 7, 2003.

Kyla L. Groff Kelim, Alexander City, for appellant.

William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and Cedric B. Colvin, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Pursuant to a negotiated agreement, the appellant, J.L.N., pleaded guilty to establishing a residence in violation of the residence restrictions set forth in the Community Notification Act ("the CNA"),¹ specifically a violation of § 15-20-26(b), Ala.Code 1975. The trial court sentenced him to six years in prison. The appellant did not file any postjudgment motions. This appeal followed. We reverse and render a judgment for J.L.N.

The appellant was previously convicted of the second-degree rape of his girlfriend, L.N.P., who was 15 years old at the time of the crime.² The appellant was incarcerated for a time, and, after he was released on probation, L.N.P.'s mother and L.N.P. moved into his house. The appellant was indicted in this case on a charge that he, an adult sex offender, had established a residence within 1,000 feet of the property on which his former victim or any of his victim's immediate family members resided. § 15-20-26(b). The appellant filed an unverified motion to dismiss the indictment, to which he attached police statements from L.N.P. and her mother that indicated that L.N.P. and the appellant had L.N.P.'s mother's permission to marry and that L.N.P. and her mother had moved into the appellant's house. After a hearing was held, at which no additional evidence or testimony was presented and after the trial court denied the motion to dismiss, the appellant entered a negotiated guilty plea to the charge that he had established a residence in violation of the restrictions established by the CNA. He reserved his right to challenge the trial court's denial of his motion to dismiss.

This is an unusual case, in which the parties agree that the appellant was previously convicted of second-degree rape for having consensual sexual relations with his then-underage girlfriend, L.N.P. and that L.N.P. and her mother later moved into the appellant's residence. L.N.P. gave a statement to the police in which she stated that she and the appellant were engaged to be married and that her mother had granted L.N.P. permission to marry the appellant. L.N.P.'s mother gave a statement to the police in which she said that she knew that the appellant was a convicted sex offender when she and her daughter moved into his house because she had signed the warrant against him for the second-degree rape charge on which he was convicted. L.N.P.'s mother also stated that after she had signed the warrant she gave her daughter permission to marry the appellant. The State provided these statements to the appellant in response to a discovery request, and the appellant attached them to his motion to dismiss. The parties and the trial court referred to the substance of the statements at the hearing on the motion. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court stated, "I think the intent [of the CNA] was excellent, but I'm concerned that narrowly viewed cases like [the appellant's], that it doesn't take into consideration a lot of the things in cases like his. And therefore it is overly broad. But I want to look at this." (R. 35.) The next day, the trial court entered an order summarily denying the motion to dismiss.

The indictment alleged that the appellant

"did, being an adult criminal sex offender convicted of Rape in the Second Degree, establish a residence or any other living accommodation within 1000 feet of the property on which his former victim [L.N.P.], or the victim's immediate family members resided, in violation of Section 15-20-26(b) of the Code of Alabama, against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama."

(C. 18.) Section 15-20-26(b) provides:

"Unless otherwise exempted by law, no adult criminal sex offender shall establish a residence or any other living accommodation within 1,000 feet of the property on which any of his or her former victims, or the victims' immediate family members reside."

The appellant argued in the trial court, as he does on appeal, that the CNA is unconstitutional because, he says, it is overbroad and vague and violates his procedural- and substantive-due-process rights.³ Specifically, he contends that the CNA implicates the fundamental right to family integrity because it prevents certain people from marrying, prevents certain children from living with their parents, and prevents certain siblings and relatives from living in the same household. He further contends that the CNA violates his rights to procedural and substantive due process because, he says, it infringes upon the right to be free from physical restraint and punishment, the right to travel, the right to intimate association with family members, the right to marital privacy, and the right to contract and to pursue employment of one's own choosing.

Initially, we must determine whether the appellant has standing to raise these constitutional challenges to the CNA.

"`A party has standing to challenge the constitutionality of a statute only insofar as it has an adverse impact on his own rights. As a general rule, if there is no constitutional defect in the application of the statute to a litigant, he does not have standing to argue that it would be unconstitutional if applied to third parties in hypothetical situations. Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 610 [93 S.Ct. 2908, 2914, 37 L.Ed.2d 830] (and cases cited).'

"[Ulster County Court v. Allen,] 442 U.S. [140,] 154-55, 99 S.Ct. [2213,] 2223 [(1979)]."

Taylor v. State, 442 So.2d 128, 130-31 (Ala.Crim.App.1983). In State v. Woodruff, 460 So.2d 325, 327 (Ala.Crim.App.1984), we addressed the question whether the trial court properly addressed Woodruff's claim that § 13A-6-65(a)(3), Ala.Code 1975, was unconstitutional because, Woodruff alleged, it violated "the right of privacy of consenting adults to engage in deviate sexual intercourse." In finding that the trial court did not properly address the claim, we held:

"In reviewing the propriety of the trial court's holding that the sexual misconduct statute is unconstitutional on its face, our threshold consideration is whether the trial court properly disregarded the following prudential rule of judicial self-restraint in allowing Woodruff to raise the question of the facial invalidity of the statute as applied to others:

"`[O]ne to whom application of a statute is constitutional will not be heard to attack the statute on the ground that impliedly it might also be taken as applying to other persons or other situations in which its application might be unconstitutional....'

"United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 21, 80 S.Ct. 519, 522, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960).

"This court, as well as our Supreme Court, has previously recognized and applied this traditional rule of standing.

For example, in Bland v. State, 395 So.2d 164, 166 (Ala.Crim.App.1981), we cited County Court of Ulster County v. Allen, 442 U.S. 140, 99 S.Ct. 2213, 60 L.Ed.2d 777 (1979), for the following general proposition: `A party has standing to challenge the constitutionality of a statute only insofar as it has an adverse impact on his own rights; as a general rule, if there is no constitutional defect in the application of a statute to a litigant, he does not have standing to argue that it would be unconstitutional if applied to third parties in hypothetical situations.' In State v. Wilkerson, 54 Ala.App. 104, 305 So.2d 378, 380,cert. denied,293 Ala. 774, 305 So.2d 382 (1974), in finding that the appellant could not challenge the constitutionality of a statute because he could not show that the statute's unconstitutional feature adversely affected him, we cited the general rule, as follows:

"`"... in criminal prosecution, accused has the right to assert the invalidity of the law, regulation, or rule under which he is being prosecuted, but he must show that his rights are adversely affected by the statute or ordinance, and, more particularly, that his rights are thus affected by the particular feature of the statute alleged to be in conflict with the constitution. It is not sufficient that the statute may impair the rights of others. An accused affected by one portion of a statute may not plead the invalidity of another portion of the same statute not applicable to his case, where the invalidity of the portion questioned will not render void the entire act or at least some provision that does affect him adversely; but, conversely, he may do so where the invalidity of the portion questioned would render the entire act, or some provision affecting him, void...."' (quoting 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 84).

"Appellate courts will not pass upon a constitutional question unless some specific right of the appellant is directly involved; the appellant must belong to that class affected by the statute's provisions. McCord v. Stephens, 295 Ala. 162, 325 So.2d 155 (1975); Evans v. State, 338 So.2d 1033 (Ala.Crim.App.1976), cert. denied, 348 So.2d 784 (Ala.1977); Bozeman v. State, 7 Ala.App. 151, 61 So. 604, cert. denied, 183 Ala. 91, 63 So. 201 (1913). Even under the circumstances where a constitutional attack on a statute may be presented to the trial court prior to trial and, consequently, without benefit of a trial record, adherence to the traditional concepts of standing is required. See, e.g., State v. Friedkin, 244 Ala. 494, 14 So.2d 363 (1943); State v. Wilkerson, supra; People v. Allen, 657 P.2d 447 (Colo.1983); State v. Raybon, 242 Ga. 858, 252 S.E.2d 417 (1979); State v. Price, 237 N.W.2d 813 (Iowa 1976), appeal dismissed, 426 U.S. 916, 96 S.Ct. 2619, 49 L.Ed.2d 370 (1976); People v. Jose L., 99 Misc.2d 922, 417 N.Y.S.2d 655 (N.Y.Crim.Ct.1979); Commonwealth v. Bonadio, 490 Pa. 91, 415 A.2d 47 (1980); Commonwealth v. Hughes, 468 Pa. 502, 364

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