Minor v. State
| Decision Date | 01 September 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 98,98 |
| Citation | 546 A.2d 1028,313 Md. 573 |
| Parties | Kevin Claude MINOR v. STATE of Maryland. , |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Michael R. Braudes, Asst. Public Defender (Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.
Mary Ellen Barbera, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, for appellee.
Argued before ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, * COUCH, McAULIFFE and ADKINS, JJ., and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland (retired), Specially Assigned.
At issue in this case is the constitutionality of Kevin Claude Minor's sentence of twenty-five years in prison without the possibility of parole under Maryland's habitual criminal statute. Minor was sentenced pursuant to Md.Code (1957, 1982 Repl.Vol., 1987 Cum.Supp.) Art. 27, § 643B(c), which provides:
Third conviction of crime of violence.--Any person who (1) has been convicted on two separate occasions of a crime of violence where the convictions do not arise from a single incident, and (2) has served at least one term of confinement in a correctional institution as a result of a conviction of a crime of violence, shall be sentenced, on being convicted a third time of a crime of violence, to imprisonment for the term allowed by law, but, in any event, not less than 25 years. Neither the sentence nor any part of it may be suspended, and the person shall not be eligible for parole except in accordance with the provisions of Article 31B, § 11. A separate occasion shall be considered one in which the second or succeeding offense is committed after there has been a charging document filed for the preceding occasion.
Minor's current conviction for daytime housebreaking represents his fourth conviction for a "crime of violence" in the last ten years. 1 The sentencing judge found that Minor previously had been convicted of burglary and two separate acts of housebreaking. In addition, Minor had served at least one term of confinement in the State prison system.
Minor appealed his sentence to the Court of Special Appeals, and, that court affirmed the lower court in an unreported per curiam opinion. We subsequently granted certiorari to address the important question presented.
We discussed the unique qualities of the Maryland habitual offender statute in Montone v. State, 308 Md. 599, 521 A.2d 720 (1987). Although in that case we were commenting on the operation of § 643B(b), our remarks are equally applicable to § 643B(c). We said:
The Maryland statute requires more than merely "previous" convictions; it requires separate convictions. Moreover, the statute's scope is narrowed by the fact that it requires not only that an individual shall have received separate convictions, but that he shall have been sentenced to, and shall have actually served, [a term] of confinement under the jurisdiction of the correctional system.
Id. at 606, 521 A.2d at 723 (Emphasis supplied).
Section 643B(c) is designed to allow the prosecutor to seek an enhanced punishment against individuals who have demonstrated violent propensities on three distinct occasions. The penological objectives behind the extended incarceration of these individuals are to protect our citizens from violent crime and to expose these criminals to a prolonged rehabilitative process. See Hawkins v. State, 302 Md. 143, 148, 486 A.2d 179, 182 (1985).
Minor argues that his sentence of twenty-five years without parole is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution 2 and Articles 16 and 25 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. 3 In particular, Minor asserts that he has never threatened nor harmed any person during the perpetration of any of his past crimes. Thus, Minor reasons that the legislature has erred in rigidly classifying housebreaking as a crime of violence for purposes of the enhanced punishment statute. Minor maintains that a sentence of twenty-five years without parole is disproportionate in light of all the circumstances and should be vacated pursuant to the dictates of Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983). In Helm, the Supreme Court vacated a life sentence without the possibility of parole imposed under the South Dakota habitual criminal statute. The Supreme Court concluded that the sentence was significantly disproportionate to the defendant's crime of uttering a "no account" check for $100.00.
The State contends that a Helm proportionality review of Minor's sentence is unnecessary and inappropriate in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 63 L.Ed.2d 382 (1980). In Rummel, the defendant was convicted of obtaining $120.75 by false pretenses, his third felony, and was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole under the Texas habitual criminal statute. The Supreme Court decided that this sentence was not cruel and unusual and rejected Rummel's request for a proportionality review. In the alternative, the State contends that Minor's sentence would be upheld under the Helm proportionality analysis.
Although Minor's sentence is similar in some respects to both of the sentences reviewed in Rummel and Helm, we conclude that the underlying facts in this case are more analogous to those presented in Rummel. Accordingly, an extensive proportionality review under Helm is unnecessary. We explain.
In Rummel, the Supreme Court stated that "the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposition of a sentence that is grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime." Id. at 271, 100 S.Ct. at 1138 (Citations omitted). However, "[o]utside the context of capital punishment, successful challenges to the proportionality of particular sentences have been exceedingly rare." Id. at 272, 100 S.Ct. at 1138.
The Supreme Court noted that before Rummel could receive a life sentence under the Texas statute, the State had to prove that Rummel previously had been convicted of two separate felonies and had actually served a period of incarceration for each of those offenses. Id. at 278 nn. 15, 16, 100 S.Ct. at 1141 nn. 15, 16. These procedural requirements are very similar to those of the Maryland statute in question. The Texas habitual criminal statute was found to promote the State's legitimate interest "in dealing in a harsher manner with those who by repeated criminal acts have shown that they are simply incapable of conforming to the norms of society as established by its criminal law." Id. at 276, 100 S.Ct. at 1140. In upholding the sentence, the Supreme Court indicated that the length of sentences in recidivist statutes are largely within the discretion of the punishing jurisdiction. Id. at 285, 100 S.Ct. at 1145.
Following Rummel, the Supreme Court upheld a forty year sentence imposed under Virginia law for the sale of nine ounces of marijuana. Hutto v. Davis, 454 U.S. 370, 102 S.Ct. 703, 70 L.Ed.2d 556 (1982) (per curiam). The Supreme Court reiterated that the length of legislatively mandated prison terms should rarely be subjected to judicial review. Id. at 374, 102 S.Ct. at 705.
The following year the Supreme Court decided the Helm case. In overturning the defendant's life sentence without the possibility of parole, the Supreme Court stated that "no penalty is per se constitutional ... a single day in prison may be unconstitutional in some circumstances." Helm 463 U.S. at 290, 103 S.Ct. at 3009-10. The Supreme Court, however, did not overrule Rummel. It made unmistakably clear that
[c]ontrary to the dissent's suggestions ... we do not adopt or imply approval of a general rule of appellate review of sentences. Absent specific authority, it is not the role of an appellate court to substitute its judgment for that of the sentencing court as to the appropriateness of a particular sentence; rather, in applying the Eighth Amendment the appellate court decides only whether the sentence under review is within constitutional limits. In view of the substantial deference that must be accorded legislatures and sentencing courts, a reviewing court rarely will be required to engage in extended analysis to determine that a sentence is not constitutionally disproportionate.
Id. at 290 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 3009-10 n. 16.
The Supreme Court distinguished the Rummel holding on the grounds that the defendant in that case would likely have been eligible for parole within a reasonable amount of time (twelve years), while Helm's sentence, life without parole, required that he spend the rest of his days in the state penitentiary. Id. The Supreme Court implied that its holding in Helm was limited to the particular facts of that case. 4
This Court recently had the opportunity to consider the constitutionality of a sentence imposed under Art. 27, § 643B(b) which subjects criminals who have served three separate prison terms and have been convicted of a fourth crime of violence to a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. See State v. Davis, 310 Md. 611, 530 A.2d 1223 (1987). In Davis, the defendant was convicted of daytime housebreaking. This conviction, combined with a long list of prior burglary and daytime housebreaking convictions resulted in a mandatory sentence of life without benefit of parole. Davis argued that his sentence was cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment and that Helm required that the sentence be vacated.
This Court held that Helm was not factually controlling in Davis. In particular, we noted that while Helm's crimes were "relatively minor," Davis's crimes were classified as "crimes of violence" under § 643B(a). In light of the seriousness of the crime of daytime housebreaking, the stringent requirements of § 643B(b), and the principle espoused in Helm that reviewing courts should accord substantial deference to legislative sentencing schemes, we concluded that an extended proportionality analysis was unnecessary in...
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