State v. Allen

Decision Date07 January 2005
Docket NumberNo. 03-1947.,03-1947.
Citation690 N.W.2d 684
PartiesSTATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. Robert Arthur ALLEN, Appellee.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Darrell Mullins, Assistant Attorney General, Thomas J. Ferguson, County Attorney, and Heather Prendergast, Assistant County Attorney, for appellant.

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Stephan J. Japuntich, Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellee.

STREIT, Justice.

Sometimes the past does catch up with you. The important issue before us today is whether the Iowa Constitution forbids enhancement of a crime on account of a prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction for which no term of incarceration was imposed. We hold the Iowa Constitution contains no such bar. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. Facts and Prior Proceedings

While patrolling a city park, two Waterloo police officers found a man drinking a beer. As the officers arrested the man, Robert Allen interjected. Allen told the man in a profane manner that he did not have to take a breath test. Allen, a self-professed "constitutionalist," was concerned the police would violate the man's right against self-incrimination.

The police officers turned their attention to Allen. Allen was holding a forty-ounce beer bottle in a paper sack, was surrounded by empty beer bottles, and had symptoms of drunkenness — obstreperous behavior, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and an odor of alcohol. The police officers arrested Allen for public intoxication.

Discovering Allen had prior convictions for the same crime, the prosecutor charged Allen with third-offense public intoxication, an aggravated misdemeanor. See Iowa Code §§ 123.46(2), .91 (2003).1 Allen denied the charge, and the court appointed an attorney to defend him.

The district court divided Allen's trial into two stages, separating the issues of public intoxication and enhancement. A jury found Allen was intoxicated in the park.

Before trial proceeded to enhancement, Allen filed a motion to adjudicate points of law. Allen sought to exclude evidence of a prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction for which no term of incarceration was imposed2 as unconstitutional. Allen premised his claim solely upon the Iowa Constitution.

Although Allen did not refer to a specific provision in the Iowa Constitution, he relied upon our decision in State v. Cooper, 343 N.W.2d 485 (Iowa 1984), and argued generally that our "view of the importance of counsel, as well as [our] belief in the unreliability of uncounseled convictions should preclude enhancement of the ... charge." The district court agreed. After Allen stipulated to a prior counseled conviction for public intoxication, the court found him guilty only of second-offense public intoxication, a serious misdemeanor. See Iowa Code §§ 123.46(2),.91. The court sentenced Allen to 120 days in jail and imposed a $250 fine. See id. § 903.1(1)(b). The State appealed.

II. Scope and Standards of Review

Although we generally review claims brought under the Iowa Constitution de novo, see In re S.A.J.B., 679 N.W.2d 645, 647 (Iowa 2004),

in this case there is no factual dispute. The only issue is whether the Iowa Constitution forbids use of a prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction for enhancement of a crime, even when the prior conviction did not itself result in a term of incarceration. The parties agree our review is for errors at law. State v. Tovar, 656 N.W.2d 112, 114 (Iowa 2003),

rev'd on other grounds,

541 U.S. 77, 124 S.Ct. 1379, 158 L.Ed.2d 209 (2004).

III. The Use of Prior Uncounseled Misdemeanor Convictions
A. Legal Background

A little legal history will help set the stage for our discussion of the merits. In Argersinger v. Hamlin, the United States Supreme Court interpreted the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to require "that absent a knowing and intelligent waiver, no person may be imprisoned for any offense, whether classified as petty, misdemeanor, or felony, unless he was represented by counsel at his trial." 407 U.S. 25, 37, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 2012, 32 L.Ed.2d 530, 538 (1972). In Scott v. Illinois, the Court reaffirmed this holding but expressly declined to extend Argersinger to defendants in misdemeanor cases where imprisonment was only a possibility in the statute under which the defendant was convicted. 440 U.S. 367, 373-74, 99 S.Ct. 1158, 1162, 59 L.Ed.2d 383, 389 (1979).

In Baldasar v. Illinois, 446 U.S. 222, 100 S.Ct. 1585, 64 L.Ed.2d 169 (1980), the Supreme Court examined the relevance of the Argersinger/Scott rule to the ubiquitous use in the states of prior uncounseled misdemeanor convictions to enhance later crimes in anti-recidivism statutes. A plurality of justices appeared to hold that a "prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction could not be used collaterally to impose an increased term of imprisonment upon a subsequent conviction." Id. at 226, 100 S.Ct. at 1587, 64 L.Ed.2d at 173-74. Several justices provided markedly different rationales for the result, however, and lower courts were left divided on how to apply the case. See Nichols v. United States, 511 U.S. 738, 743-46, 114 S.Ct. 1921, 1926-27, 128 L.Ed.2d 745, 752-54 (1994)

.

In State v. Cooper, 343 N.W.2d 485 (Iowa 1984), we entered Baldasar territory for the first time. The facts and circumstances of Cooper are similar to those in the case at bar. We ruled that, where a defendant was not advised of her right to counsel in two prior prosecutions for simple misdemeanor theft, the State could not later use those convictions to enhance a third theft charge to an aggravated misdemeanor.3343 N.W.2d at 486. In doing so, we rejected the State's contention that Baldasar only prevented the use of an uncounseled conviction to later impose imprisonment and did not pertain to enhancement of the charge. Id. We reasoned that "[t]he lack of reliability in an uncounseled conviction that prevents the imposition of incarceration also prevents the enhancement of the charge." Id. We concluded that "the reasoning of Baldasar and our own view of the importance of counsel preclude an enhanced conviction as well as a sentence of imprisonment." Id.

Ten years later the United States Supreme Court partially overruled Baldasar. In Nichols, the Court held an uncounseled misdemeanor conviction could enhance a later offense so long as no incarceration was imposed in the first prosecution. 511 U.S. at 748-49, 114 S.Ct. at 1928, 128 L.Ed.2d at 755. But see id. at 748 n. 12, 114 S.Ct. at 1928 n. 12, 128 L.Ed.2d at 755 n. 12 (recognizing states are free to afford more protections to defendants); Iowa R.Crim. P. 2.28. We recognized this change in federal constitutional law last year but were not asked to reconsider Cooper in light of Nichols. See Tovar, 656 N.W.2d at 114

.4

Litigants caught in the ebb and flow of the United States Supreme Court's rulings in Baldasar and Nichols learned the fate of Cooper in Iowa — at least as a matter of federal constitutional law — this past August. In State v. Wilkins, the defendant was charged with third-offense OWI. 687 N.W.2d 263, 264 (Iowa 2004). Before sentencing, the defendant challenged the propriety of the degree of the offense. Id. She pointed out that, like the defendant in Cooper, she did not have counsel during one of her two prior convictions. Id. The State rejoined that the defendant in Wilkins was not actually incarcerated for that prior offense, and therefore Nichols did not forbid using it for enhancement. Id.

After examining Nichols, we overruled Cooper as a matter of federal constitutional law and held the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments did not prohibit use of the prior misdemeanor conviction for enhancement because Wilkins was not incarcerated for that earlier offense. See id. at 264-65. In ruling, we recognized Nichols had overruled the plurality decision in Baldasar. Id. at 264. We wrote that with respect to federal constitutional law, "an enhancement of a sentence based on prior uncounseled misdemeanor convictions does not violate the Sixth [and Fourteenth] Amendment [s] unless the prior uncounseled offenses actually resulted in imprisonment." Id. (citing Nichols, 511 U.S. at 746-47, 114 S.Ct. at 1927, 128 L.Ed.2d at 754). Recognizing, then, that Cooper was premised upon a "view of the federal constitution [that was] unambiguously rejected in Nichols," we overruled Cooper in part. Id. at 265. As a matter of federal jurisprudence, we were "not at liberty to continue to follow our holding in Cooper." Id.

In Wilkins, we did not decide the issue as a matter of state constitutional law. Id. The defendant had not raised this issue in the district court. Id. Because Allen has preserved error on his state constitutional claim, we now address the merits of the argument for the first time.

B. The Iowa Constitution

In the district court, Allen argued use of a prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction would violate the Iowa Constitution, notwithstanding the advent of Nichols. Allen did not, however, cite any specific provision of the Iowa Constitution in support of his claim. Allen simply pointed the district court to our Cooper decision, where we stated under nearly identical circumstances that "the reasoning of Baldasar and our own view of the importance of counsel" precluded enhancement. Cooper, 343 N.W.2d at 486 (emphasis added). The district court agreed. The court reasoned the aforementioned italicized phrase in Cooper indicated that we premised our conclusion in that case upon the Iowa Constitution.

Wilkins, however, forecloses this argument. We stated:

Wilkins argues that, because the result in our Cooper case was premised in part on "our own view of the importance of counsel," see 343 N.W.2d at 486, we should continue to follow that precedent. Cooper was commenting on an interpretation of the Sixth Amendment of the federal constitution in which only four justices joined. Consequently, we believe that the reference to our view of the matter was intended
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