M.A.W. v. State
| Decision Date | 20 May 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. J-2007-955.,J-2007-955. |
| Citation | 185 P.3d 388,2008 OK CR 16 |
| Parties | M.A.W., Appellant v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Mark Bailey, Erin Maxwell, Assistant Public Defenders, Oklahoma City, OK, attorneys for defendant at trial.
Jennifer E. Chance, Assistant District Attorney, Oklahoma City, OK, attorney for State/appellee at trial and on appeal.
Benjamin C. Brown, James Hughes, Erin Maxwell, Assistant Public Defenders, Oklahoma City, OK, attorneys for appellant on appeal.
¶ 1 M.A.W. appeals an order entered by the Honorable D. Fred Doak, Special Judge, finding that he is ineligible to be considered for youthful offender or juvenile status and denying his motions for certification as a youthful offender and as a juvenile in Oklahoma County District Court, Case No. CF-2007-3389. M.A.W. is charged as an adult in that case with First Degree Murder. The alleged crime occurred on or about June 7, 2007, when M.A.W. was 17 years old.1
¶ 2 In the proceedings below, M.A.W. sought certification to be tried as a youthful offender or a juvenile. Finding that M.A.W. was not eligible for youthful offender or juvenile certification, the district court denied M.A.W.'s motion. At the time, 10 O.S.Supp. 2007, § 7306-2.2(A)(1)(a) provided youthful offender eligibility for persons charged with first degree murder only if they were thirteen or fourteen years of age; and § 7306-2.5(B) specifically excluded seventeen, sixteen, and fifteen-year-olds from the provisions of the Youthful Offender Act and Juvenile Code.
¶ 3 M.A.W. challenges the district court's denial of his request for youthful offender status by raising the following claims:
(1) House Bill 2195, a bill enacted in 2007 revising the Youthful Offender Act provisions that had been recently codified at 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5, is unconstitutional because it was passed in violation of the anti-logrolling and single-subject provisions of Article 5, § 57 of the Oklahoma Constitution;
(2) Senate Bill 1760, a bill enacted in 2006 eliminating youthful offender eligibility for seventeen, sixteen, and fifteen-year-olds charged with first degree murder, was impliedly repealed by the Legislature; and therefore, its provisions were wrongly incorporated into HB 2195's revisions to 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5, revisions that were then codified at 10 O.S. Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5;
(3) The provisions of 10 O.S.Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5 limiting youthful offender eligibility for persons charged with first degree murder to thirteen and fourteen-year-olds are unconstitutionally overbroad.
¶ 4 For the reasons set out below, we find nothing in M.A.W.'s arguments that persuades us that 10 O.S.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5 are unconstitutional. Nor do we find any merit to M.A.W.'s claim that 10 O.S.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5 are unconstitutionally overbroad.
¶ 5 Title 10 O.S.Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5 permit youthful offender certification for individuals charged with first degree murder only if they are thirteen or fourteen years of age. The historical note appended to each of these sections in the 2007 statutory supplement reflects that the text presented there was the result of a revision to 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5 as directed by House Bill (HB) 2195 (2007 Okla.Sess.Law Ch. 1, §§ 9-12).2 The two versions of these two provisions, published at the revised 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5, consisted of the bare text of two separately enacted Senate Bills, SB 1760 (2006 Okla.Sess.Laws Ch. 285)3 and SB 1765 (2006 Okla.Sess.Laws Ch. 286),4 both of which were passed during the 2006 legislative session as separate, single-subject enactments. As published in the 2006 Supplement to the Oklahoma Statutes, the two enactments appear contradictory. One of the published texts (the one enacted by SB 1760), permits youthful offender status only for thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, whereas the other (the one enacted by SB 1765), retains the preexisting language from the underlying 2001 statutory codification that permits youthful offender certification for individuals up to age seventeen.
¶ 6 Two days before HB 2195 was approved by the Governor, this Court issued its decision in State v. Doak, 2007 OK CR 3, 154 P.3d 84. Doak dealt with the apparently conflicting texts published in the 2006 Supplement. In Doak, we found that the facially conflicting texts could not be reconciled and held, therefore, that SB 1765 impliedly repealed SB 1760 and its language eliminating youthful offender status for fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen-year-olds because SB 1765 was the later-enacted bill, having been signed into law by the Governor two minutes after SB 1760. Doak, 2007 OK CR 3, ¶ 19, 154 P.3d at 88.
¶ 7 M.A.W. contends that HB 2195 (a bill enacted in 2007 revising the Youthful Offender Act provisions then codified at 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5) is unconstitutional because it was passed in violation of the anti-logrolling and single-subject provisions of Article 5, § 57 of the Oklahoma Constitution. In support of his argument, M.A.W. points out that HB 2195 was over one-hundred pages long and contained sections amending dozens of statutes, including the statutes at issue here. M.A.W. contends, therefore, that the age provisions of SB 1760, denying youthful offender status to those over fourteen, as those provisions were incorporated into HB 2195, violate the single-subject, anti-logrolling provisions of Article 5, § 57, of the Oklahoma Constitution because all of the various statutes amended by HB 2195 are not closely related in either topic or purpose. M.A.W.'s claim raises a question of first impression.
¶ 8 "The purpose of the constitutional requirement that but a single subject be included in a legislative bill is to make impossible by log-rolling devices the enactment of unpopular legislation by including it with popular legislation on an entirely different subject." Bond v. Phelps, 1948 OK 76, ¶ 44, 191 P.2d 938, 950. What HB 2195 did, with respect to 10 O.S.2001, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5, was simply to adopt and revive the previously-enacted revisions from SB 1760 and SB 1765 so that the changes approved in those two, separately-enacted, single-subject bills could be incorporated and merged into the revised Oklahoma Statutes codified at 10 O.S.Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5. This is a significant distinction under our Constitution.
¶ 9 The Oklahoma Constitution provides:
Every act of the Legislature shall embrace but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, except general appropriation bills, general revenue bills, and bills adopting a code, digest, or revision of statutes; and no law shall be revived amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred, by reference to its title only; but so much thereof as is revived, amended, extended, or conferred, shall be re-enacted and published at length: Provided, That if any subject be embraced in any act contrary to the provisions of this section, such act shall be void only as to so much of the laws as may not be expressed in the title thereof.
Article 5, § 57 (emphasis added). Thus, bills adopting a "revision of statutes" are clearly excluded from the single-subject rule of Article 5, § 57. House Bill 2195 falls squarely into this "revision of statutes" exception. Furthermore, laws may be revived under this provision provided the law is reenacted and published at length.
¶ 10 The structure, title, and text of HB 2195 all confirm that, while it was enacted in 2007, it is a clean-up bill of sorts, designed to amend, merge, consolidate and repeal duplicate sections added to various Oklahoma Statutes during the 2006 legislative session. This type of bill is passed in some form after each legislative session and merges amendments made in separate single-subject bills to the same statute to make one unified statute or section.5 House Bill 2195's title, for example, cites to, and incorporates by reference, very specific and separately enacted pieces of legislation as the authority for the listed revisions. The title lists Chapter 285 and Chapter 286 from the 2006 Oklahoma Session Laws as authority for the revisions to 10 O.S.Supp.2006, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5. In the text, HB 2195 eliminates one of the two enactments by repeal and amends the other to incorporate the changes adopted in the repealed enactment so the two become merged and only one remains. It is clear that the Legislature intended, through HB 2195, only to revise these duplicate bills (originally SB 1760 and SB 1765), which amend the same sections of the Youthful Offender Act in order to merge them and to reconcile any conflicts therein. House Bill 2195 reenacted the amendments adopted during the 2006 legislative session in a consolidated form and published it at length in compliance with Oklahoma's Constitution. Hence, House Bill 2195 is a valid legislative enactment under Article 5, § 57, as a bill adopting a revision of statutes.
¶ 11 M.A.W. also contends that the district court improperly denied his motions for youthful offender certification by relying on the age criteria of 10 O.S.Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5. According to M.A.W., the language of 10 O.S.Supp.2007, §§ 7306-2.2 and 7306-2.5, permitting youthful offender certification for persons charged with first degree murder only if they are thirteen or fourteen years of age, was impliedly repealed by the Legislature during the 2006 legislative session with enactment of SB 1765.
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