Kaiser v. State, C5-00-807.

• Decision Date: 18 April 2002
• Docket Number: No. C5-00-807.,C5-00-807.
• Citation: Kaiser v. State, 641 N.W.2d 900 (Minn. 2002)
• Parties: Douglas Wade KAISER, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

641 N.W.2d 900

Douglas Wade KAISER, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.

No. C5-00-807.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 18, 2002.

Deborah K. Ellis, St. Paul, Lisa Lodin Peralta, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Mike A. Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, St. Paul, James C. Backstrom, Dakota County Attorney, Phillip D. Prokopowicz, Assistant County Attorney, Hastings, for respondent.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

STRINGER, Justice.

Appellant pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor offense without being advised that as a consequence of the plea he was statutorily required to register as a predatory offender. Appellant moved to withdraw his guilty plea and the court denied the motion, concluding that the plea was "accurate, voluntary and intelligent." Appellant then petitioned the court for postconviction relief arguing inter alia that he would not have pleaded guilty if he had been advised of his duty to register as a predatory offender. The district court denied the petition holding that appellant was not entitled to withdraw his guilty plea because the registration requirement was a collateral, and not a direct, consequence of his guilty plea. The court of appeals agreed, holding that the registration requirement constituted a collateral consequence. We affirm.

Appellant Douglas Wade Kaiser was charged with use of minors in a sexual performance, possession of pictorial representations of minors, providing alcohol to minors, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Pursuant to an agreement, he pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanor possession of pictorial representations of minors as defined by Minn.Stat. § 617.247, subd. 4 (1996). At the plea hearing the court stayed imposition of sentence and placed appellant on supervised probation for two years with conditions that included a $1,000 fine and no unsupervised contact with juvenile females.¹ When appellant entered his plea, neither the court nor defense counsel advised him of the duty to register as a predatory offender pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 243.166 (1998),² and it was not until a court appearance about two months later that a prosecutor advised appellant and the court that registration was a requirement.

Appellant moved to withdraw his plea pursuant to Minn. R.Crim. P. 15.05 claiming manifest injustice because his attorney had not fully advised him of his rights and had told him he had 90 days to withdraw a guilty plea once made.³ The district court denied his motion, finding that proper care was taken to ensure that appellant understood his plea and therefore his plea was accurate, voluntary and intelligent.

Appellant then petitioned the district court for postconviction relief arguing that his guilty plea and conviction should be set aside because he was not advised of his duty to register as a predatory offender, which he characterized as the "most onerous, most serious" consequence of the plea, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and that there was no factual basis to support his plea. The district court denied relief on all grounds concluding that the registration requirement "is not punishment for a crime, but is merely a safeguard for the community; thus, it is a collateral and not a direct consequence to a plea of `guilty.'"

The court of appeals affirmed the postconviction order on each issue, holding that the registration requirement is a collateral consequence of a guilty plea because an intervening act of discretion is required to determine whether to prosecute for failure to register and because the requirement to register is primarily regulatory rather than punitive. Kaiser v. State, 621 N.W.2d 49, 54-55 (Minn.App.), rev. granted (Minn. Mar. 13, 2001). We granted review only on the issue of whether the predatory offender registration requirement is a direct or collateral consequence of a guilty plea.

Appellant contends that the registration requirement is a direct consequence of a guilty plea because the duty to register flows definitely, immediately and automatically from the guilty plea. Further, appellant argues that direct consequences need not relate only to the maximum sentence or fine imposed on a defendant and that whether a sanction is punitive or regulatory in nature is separate from whether it is a direct or collateral consequence. The state responds that because prosecution for failure to register depends on prosecutorial discretion, the consequence does not flow definitely, immediately or automatically from a guilty plea and sentence, and because the duty to register does not constitute punishment, it is not a direct consequence of a guilty plea.

We begin our analysis recognizing that a defendant does not have an absolute right to withdraw a guilty plea. Shorter v. State, 511 N.W.2d 743, 746 (Minn.1994). Public policy favors the finality of judgments and courts "`are not disposed to encourage accused persons to "play games" with the courts'" by setting aside judgments of conviction based upon pleas made with deliberation and accepted by the court with caution. Chapman v. State, 282 Minn. 13, 16, 162 N.W.2d 698, 700 (1968) (quoting Everett v. United States, 336 F.2d 979, 984 (D.C.Cir.1964)). The Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure provide however, that a plea of guilty may be withdrawn "upon a timely motion and proof to the satisfaction of the court that withdrawal is necessary to correct a manifest injustice." Minn. R.Crim. P. 15.05, subd. 1.

A valid guilty plea must meet three requirements: it must be accurate, voluntary, and intelligent. Perkins v. State, 559 N.W.2d 678, 688 (Minn.1997). Manifest injustice occurs if any of these three requirements have not been met. Id. Appellant's claim here is that because he was not informed of the duty to register as a predatory offender, his plea was not intelligent. We held in State v. Trott that "[t]he purpose of the requirement that the plea be intelligent is to insure that the defendant understands the charges, understands the rights he is waiving by pleading guilty, and understands the consequences of his plea." 338 N.W.2d 248, 251 (Minn. 1983). A defendant need not be advised of every consequence for his plea to be intelligent, however. We held in Alanis v. State that "it is the direct consequences of the guilty plea to which we refer" and ruled that deportation was not a direct consequence. 583 N.W.2d 573, 578 (Minn.1998). Therefore failure of the court to advise the defendant of deportation consequences was not grounds for withdrawal of his plea: "[i]gnorance of a collateral consequence does not entitle a criminal defendant to withdraw a guilty plea."⁴Id. We elaborated on the reasoning behind our holding:

It makes sense that direct consequences are those which flow definitely, immediately, and automatically from the guilty plea—the maximum sentence and any fine to be imposed. Further, it makes sense that deportation is not a direct consequence of the guilty plea because deportation is neither definite, immediate, nor automatic.

Id. (footnote omitted).

Here the court of appeals interpreted this language to mean that "[t]he distinction between direct and collateral consequences * * * turns on whether the result adds a definite, immediate, and automatic effect to the defendant's punishment." Kaiser, 621 N.W.2d at 53. Since, in its view, the predatory offender registration requirement did not add to appellant's punishment, and the consequences were not definite, immediate, and automatic, the consequence was collateral. Id. at 54. We disagree with the ruling of the court of appeals that the duty to register as a predatory offender is not definite, immediate and automatic because the offender is required to register immediately, definitely and automatically upon entering a guilty plea. The court of appeals was correct however, in concluding that because the predatory offender registration is not a punitive consequence, it is collateral in nature.

In Alanis we held that direct consequences are those related to punishment that flow definitely, immediately and automatically from the plea, and that direct consequences were the maximum sentence and fine, as they flow definitely, immediately and automatically from the punishment to be imposed.⁵ 583 N.W.2d at 578-79 ("[D]irect consequences of making the plea, that being the maximum sentence and the amount of any fine to be imposed."). They are the consequences the defendant must face for his criminal conduct.⁶

The dissent of Justice Page argues that this case is governed by our decisions in State v. Jumping Eagle, 620 N.W.2d 42 (Minn.2000); State v. Brown, 606 N.W.2d 670 (Minn.2000); and State v. Garcia, 582 N.W.2d 879 (Minn.1998). In these cases, we held that when a trial court accepts a guilty plea without informing a defendant that his sentence is subject to a mandatory conditional release term that would have the effect of increasing his sentence beyond the upper limit of his court—accepted plea agreement, the sentencing court must choose either to modify the defendant's sentence so that it does not exceed the upper limit of the plea agreement or to allow the defendant to withdraw his guilty plea. See Jumping Eagle, 620 N.W.2d at 44-45. In those cases the consequence at issue was the length of actual incarceration the defendant faced—the essence of an offender's punishment. This case is fundamentally different. Here, the consequence of registering as a predatory offender involves no additional incarceration and has no relation to appellant's punishment.

Consequences flowing from the plea that are not punishment serve a substantially different purpose than those that serve to punish, as they are civil and regulatory in nature and are imposed in the interest of public safety. Consequences such as the revocation of driving privileges following a conviction for driving under the influence,⁷ or loss of the right to possess a firearm following the...