Rickett v. Jones

• Decision Date: 22 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-7357,89-7357
• Citation: 901 F.2d 1058
• Parties: J.W. RICKETT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Charles JONES, Warden (St. Clair) and The Attorney General of the State of Alabama, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1058

901 F.2d 1058

J.W. RICKETT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Charles JONES, Warden (St. Clair) and The Attorney General of the State of Alabama, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 89-7357.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 22, 1990.

J.S. Rickett, Springville, Ala. and Rick L. Burgess, Birmingham, Ala., for petitioner-appellant.

Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen. and James B. Prude, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for respondents-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before JOHNSON and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges, and PECKHAM ^*, Senior District Judge.

EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge:

The question is whether sentencing a repeat felony offender to life imprisonment in accordance with Alabama's mandatory Habitual Felony Offender Act ("HFOA" or "Act"), Ala.Code Sec. 13A-5-9 (1975), constitutes an equal protection violation when a co-defendant, who was also a repeat offender, was not sentenced pursuant to the Act. The answer is "no".

Rickett was arrested on charges of theft and jailed. With the assistance of Battles, a fellow detainee, Rickett escaped from jail. The two were recaptured. Battles, on the eve of his trial, pleaded guilty to escape and theft in the first degree. Although Battles had prior convictions and should have been sentenced under the HFOA, the prosecutor in Battles' case erred in not learning of the earlier convictions before Battles' sentencing. Battles was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Later, Rickett had a jury trial and was convicted of first degree escape. Rickett was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole under the HFOA, based on evidence that Rickett had four prior felony convictions. See Ala.Code Sec. 13A-5-9(c)(2) (1975). At Rickett's trial, Battles testified against Rickett and admitted having three prior felony convictions. ¹ These admissions might have brought Battles within the scope of HFOA's mandatory life sentence for repeat felony offenders.

Rickett argues that the dissimilar sentencing denied him equal protection. ² We disagree. Rickett fails to establish an equal protection claim for two reasons.

First, the Supreme Court set out the controlling law on this issue in Oyler v. Boles, 368 U.S. 448, 456, 82 S.Ct. 501, 506, 7 L.Ed.2d 446 (1962). The Court rejected the argument that application of West Virginia's recidivist statute to the Oyler petitioners violated the equal protection clause. The Court held that where "the allegations set out no more than a failure to prosecute other [ ] [three-time offenders] because of a lack of knowledge of their prior offenses[,] [t]his does not deny equal protection due petitioners...." ³ Here, the district court made a factual finding that Battles' record for prior felonies was unchecked due to a slip by the prosecutors and that the prosecutors were for that reason unaware of Battles' earlier convictions. So, in the light of Oyler, Rickett has failed to show an equal protection violation.

Second, even if Oyler does not bar Rickett, he fails to prove a violation of the equal protection clause. Rickett's evidence in this case fails to show that, in Alabama, persons similarly situated to Rickett are generally not prosecuted and sentenced as habitual offenders. The HFOA is mandatory in its terms. See Maye v. State, 472 So.2d 688, 690 (Ala.Crim.App.1985); Watson v. State, 392 So.2d 1274, 1276 (Ala.Crim.App.1980). At most, Rickett has shown in Battles' case an isolated and random departure from the HFOA; and this is not enough.

No human institution is perfect, including courts of law. Occasional or random errors in application of state law will occur; but such errors do not constitute state policy, and they do not offend the equal protection clause of the federal Constitution. ⁴ Merely negligent conduct is insufficient to support a claim for denial of equal protection. See Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 265, 97 S.Ct. 555, 563, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977). The HFOA is facially neutral, applying equally to all repeat felony offenders. "Mere error or mistake in judgment when applying a facially neutral statute does not violate the equal protection clause. There must be intentional discrimination." E & T Realty v. Strickland, 830 F.2d 1107, 1114 (11th Cir.1987). Nothing suggests that the fourteenth amendment's equal protection clause was intended to serve as a shield against every human error. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the contention that inequality due to error violates equal protection. See, e.g., Beck v. Washington, 369 U.S. 541, 554-55, 82 S.Ct. 955, 962-63, 8 L.Ed.2d 98 (1962); Charleston Federal S. & L. Ass'n v. Alderson, 324 U.S. 182, 190, 65 S.Ct. 624, 630, 89 L.Ed. 857 (1945); Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U.S. 1, 8, 64 S.Ct. 397, 401, 88 L.Ed. 497 (1944). See also McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 292-93, 107 S.Ct. 1756, 1766-67, 95 L.Ed.2d 262 (1987). Here, Rickett was sentenced in compliance with the HFOA's terms. Battles was lucky and, due to the prosecutors' oversight, escaped application of the full force of the HFOA. But this gift of chance to Battles does not mean that Rickett's constitutional rights were violated.

Rickett's claim, at best, is like one for selective prosecution. To make out such a case, a defendant must establish "that, while others similarly situated have not generally been proceeded against because of conduct of the type forming the basis of the charge against him, he has been singled out for prosecution." United States v. Johnson, 577 F.2d 1304, 1308 (5th Cir.1978) (quoting United States v. Berrios, 501 F.2d 1207, 1211 (2d Cir.1974)). Rickett has not proved that he was singled out for harsh treatment.

The district court found that, while checks of prior records are routinely done, Battles' record was not checked due to an error in the prosecutors' office and that prosecutors did not know of Battles' earlier convictions when Battles was sentenced. The district court also found no reason to doubt the prosecutors' testimony or integrity when they testified that nothing was done invidiously against Rickett and that no special treatment was given to Battles. The district court's findings of fact are entitled to deference. Nothing in this record shows that Battles' record was not checked or that Rickett's record was checked because of an official's desire to punish Rickett (or to reward Battles) based on impermissible considerations such as race or religion or because of a desire to prevent Rickett's exercise of his constitutional rights. Intentional and purposeful discrimination is essential to a selective prosecution claim. Johnson, 577 F.2d at 1308.

Alabama prosecutors should be painstaking in checking about prior felonies. The intent of Alabama law is that all persons within the scope of the Act are to be punished in accordance with its terms. Carelessness in checking records can weaken the legislation's effectiveness. In addition, if failure to apply the HFOA were to become more than occasional and random, the federal Constitution might be violated, requiring federal court intervention. ⁵ But the record in this case fails to show a violation of the federal Constitution.

The judgment of the District Court denying this state prisoner federal habeas corpus relief is AFFIRMED.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge, concurring in the judgment:

For reasons stated below, I agree that the judgment of the district court in this case should be affirmed. I write separately, however, to emphasize that Alabama has trod close to the line of unconstitutional irrationality in its application of the Habitual Felony Offender Act ("HFOA"), and to express my disagreement with the majority's reliance on Oyler v. Boles, 368 U.S. 448, 82 S.Ct. 501, 7 L.Ed.2d 446 (1962).

I. THE RATIONAL BASIS COMPONENT OF EQUAL PROTECTION

The equal protection clause "is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike." Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, 473 U.S. 432, 439, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 3254, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985). The most basic and familiar principle of equal protection is that "legislation is presumed to be valid and will be sustained if the classification drawn by the statute is rationally related to a legitimate state interest." Id. at 440, 105 S.Ct. at 3254. The Supreme Court has stated and applied this "rational basis test" in innumerable cases. The test has frequently been applied in a deferential manner to uphold economic and social legislation. See, e.g., Schweiker v. Wilson, 450 U.S. 221, 101 S.Ct. 1074, 67 L.Ed.2d 186 (1981); New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 96 S.Ct. 2513, 49 L.Ed.2d 511 (1976); Williamson v. Lee Optical, 348 U.S. 483, 75 S.Ct. 461, 99 L.Ed. 563 (1955). The standard is "not a toothless one," however, see Schweiker, 450 U.S. at 234, 101 S.Ct. at 1082-83, and the Court has applied it, for example, to invalidate laws irrationally discriminating against the mentally retarded, see Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 450, 105 S.Ct. at 3259-60 persons who have recently moved from one state to another, see Hooper v. Bernalillo County Assessor, 472 U.S. 612, 618-23, 105 S.Ct. 2862, 2866-69, 86 L.Ed.2d 487 (1985), tenants unable to post excessive security bonds in rental disputes, see Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 74-79, 92 S.Ct. 862, 874-77, 31 L.Ed.2d 36 (1972), and persons born out of wedlock, see Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Ins. Co., 391 U.S. 73, 75, 88 S.Ct. 1515, 1516, 20 L.Ed.2d 441 (1968).

Rickett concedes the legitimacy of the state interest in this case. Alabama's objective in enacting the HFOA, as authoritatively construed by its own courts, was quite simply to "prevent repetition and increase of crimes by imposing increased penalties upon repeat offenders." Watson v. State, 392 So.2d 1274, 1279 (Ala.Crim.App.1980) cert. denied, 392 So.2d 1280 (Ala.1981). The touchstone of the inquiry in this case is thus whether the disparate treatment of Rickett ...