McKinney v. State

• Decision Date: 04 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 2002-197-C.A.,2002-197-C.A.
• Citation: 843 A.2d 463
• Parties: James R. McKINNEY v. STATE.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

843 A.2d 463

James R. McKINNEY v. STATE.

No. 2002-197-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

February 4, 2004.

Joan Huffman (Non-RI), for Plaintiff.

Aaron L. Weisman, Providence, for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., FLANDERS, GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY and SUTTELL, JJ.

OPINION

WILLIAMS, Chief Justice.

The applicant, James R. McKinney (McKinney), pled nolo contendere to six counts stemming from an armed robbery during which he fired shots at a security guard and an off-duty police officer. At his sentencing, McKinney agreed to serve forty years of a sixty-year sentence. This appeal concerns McKinney's subsequent application for post-conviction relief, filed pursuant to G.L.1956 § 10-9.1-1. McKinney asked the Superior Court to deem his sentence unconstitutional after he consented to it. The Superior Court hearing justice (hearing justice) found McKinney's arguments to be persuasive and reduced his sentence. For the reasons stated below, we reverse the judgment and reinstate the agreed-upon sentence.

I Facts and Travel

In the early morning of January 13, 1994, McKinney robbed the front office of a Comfort Inn (hotel) in the City of Pawtucket. McKinney directed the clerk, at gunpoint, to clean out the cash register then demanded that he open the safe. While the clerk was explaining that he could not open the safe he heard the hotel's security guard and his friend returning from rounds. McKinney ran out of the office, yelling at the guard and his friend to "get back," which they did. McKinney fled to the parking lot as the guard began chasing him. Realizing that he was being chased, McKinney turned around and fired a shot at the guard, but, fortunately, missed.

Meanwhile, two off-duty Providence police officers who had been dining at a restaurant inside the hotel heard the commotion and joined the chase. As McKinney approached the getaway car, he turned and fired shots at one of the off-duty police officers, again missing. The guard and the officers jumped into their vehicles and began to follow McKinney as he drove away, but they lost him as he merged onto the highway toward Providence.

The police officers were able to run the plates on McKinney's Jeep and found that it was registered to McKinney's girlfriend, Thannatta Littlejohn (Littlejohn). The police then went to Littlejohn's home. She told the officers where they could find McKinney. The officers promptly arrested McKinney.

In 1994 McKinney pled nolo contendere to six counts relating to his crime: one count of first-degree robbery in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-39-1; one count of assault with intent to commit robbery in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-5-1; three counts of felony assault with a dangerous weapon in violation of § 11-5-2; and one count of possession of arms by a person convicted of a crime of violence in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-47-5. The state and McKinney negotiated a plea agreement in which McKinney would serve twenty years of a forty-year sentence in exchange for the state's agreeing not to seek habitual offender status at sentencing.¹ At McKinney's sentencing, the Superior Court justice (sentencing justice) rejected the sentence agreed to by the parties and, instead, offered McKinney a sentence of sixty years, forty to serve, which McKinney accepted. Shortly thereafter, McKinney filed a pro se motion to reduce his sentence pursuant to Rule 35 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. The sentencing justice denied McKinney's motion, finding that his crimes were "vicious" and "well-concocted." McKinney then appealed to this Court and we affirmed his sentence. State v. McKinney, 705 A.2d 1379 (R.I. 1997) (mem.).

McKinney then filed the instant application for post-conviction relief pursuant to § 10-9.1-1, alleging that the sentence violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 8, of the Rhode Island Constitution. The hearing justice agreed with McKinney, finding it was "a manifestly excessive sentence * * * which constitutes, in effect, cruel and unusual punishment. * * *." The hearing justice reduced McKinney's sentence to twenty-five years to serve. The state timely appealed. We hold that the hearing justice erred in reducing McKinney's sentence.

II Application for Post-Conviction Relief

McKinney applied for post-conviction relief pursuant to § 10-9.1-1(a), which says that "[a]ny person who has been convicted of, or sentenced for, a crime * * * who claims * * * (1)[t]hat the conviction or the sentence was in violation of the constitution of the United States or the constitution or laws of this state * * * may institute * * * a proceeding under this chapter to secure relief." In reviewing an application for post-conviction relief, "[w]e will not disturb a trial justice's findings * * * absent clear error or a showing that the trial justice overlooked or misconceived material evidence." Bleau v. Wall, 808 A.2d 637, 641 (R.I.2002) (quoting State v. Thomas, 794 A.2d 990, 993 (R.I.2002)). This Court, however, reviews constitutional questions de novo, "giving deference to the lower court's findings of historical fact." State v. Thornton, 800 A.2d 1016, 1026 (R.I.2002).

McKinney correctly asserts that the test to determine whether a sentence is "manifestly excessive" under Rule 35 is different from the test for whether a sentence violates the United States or Rhode Island Constitutions.² Because this Court already has determined that McKinney's sentence is not "manifestly excessive," the only issue before the hearing justice, and consequently this Court, is whether McKinney's sentence is unconstitutional.

McKinney's constitutional arguments are founded on the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 8, of the Rhode Island Constitution. We begin our analysis by setting forth the relevant tests. As we discuss, the tests under both constitutions are identical. Based on our review, we hold that defendant's sentence is not unconstitutional because it is commensurate with the crimes he committed.

A Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

In determining the standards against which McKinney's sentence must be measured, we are forced to wade through a morass of United States Supreme Court Eighth Amendment decisions. Unfortunately, these decisions can be described as divergent at best and outright contradictory at worst. Indeed, as Justice O'Connor described, "[i]n most situations, the task of determining what we have clearly established [would] be straightforward. The difficulty * * * however, is that our precedents in this area have not been the model of clarity." Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 72, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144, 155 (2003). Donning our compass and machete, we venture into the thicket of those precedents with the purpose of extracting a workable test.

The Eighth Amendment states: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." In Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 592, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1977), the United States Supreme Court held that a death sentence was grossly disproportionate to the crime of raping an adult woman and, thus, violated the Eighth Amendment. The Court concluded that "a punishment is `excessive' and unconstitutional if it (1) makes no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment and hence is nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering; or (2) is grossly out of proportion to the severity of the crime." Id. The proportionality principle was extended to noncapital sentences in Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 63 L.Ed.2d 382 (1980). Relying on Coker and Rummel, McKinney argues that his sentence is unconstitutional because it is "grossly disproportionate" when compared with the severity of the crime.

In Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 292, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983), the United States Supreme Court held that "a court's proportionality analysis under the Eighth Amendment should be guided by objective criteria, including (i) the gravity of the offense and the harshness of the penalty; (ii) the sentences imposed on other criminals in the same jurisdiction; and (iii) the sentences imposed for commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions."

The three-part Solem test was severely weakened in Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991), a plurality opinion. Unlike the defendant in Solem, who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a seventh nonviolent felony, Solem, 463 U.S. at 279, 103 S.Ct. 3001, the defendant in Harmelin was a fast-time felon sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for possessing 672 grams of cocaine. Harmelin, 501 U.S. at 961, 994, 111 S.Ct. 2680. In Harmelin, Justice Scalia, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist declared that "Solem was simply wrong; the Eighth Amendment contains no proportionality guarantee." Id. at 965, 111 S.Ct. 2680. Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices O'Connor and Souter, concurred in the judgment but, rather than entirely disposing of any proportionality guarantee under the Eighth Amendment, they adopted a "narrow proportionality principle." Id. at 997, 111 S.Ct. 2680.

After distilling a number of cases on the subject, Justice Kennedy noted five common principles "that give content to the uses and limits of proportionality review." Harmelin, 501 U.S. at 998,111 S.Ct. 2680. First, "the fixing of prison terms for specific crimes involves a substantive penological judgment that, as a general matter, is `properly within the province of legislatures, not courts.'" Id. (quoting Rummel, 445 U.S. at 275-76,100 S.Ct. 1133). Second, "the Eighth Amendment does not mandate adoption of any one penological theory," but allows courts to accord "different weights at different times to the penological goals of retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and...