State v. Fife

• Decision Date: 08 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 950256-CA,950256-CA
• Citation: 911 P.2d 989
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. David Leslie FIFE, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

Page 989

911 P.2d 989

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. David Leslie FIFE, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 950256-CA.

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Feb. 8, 1996.

Joan C. Watt, David V. Finlayson, and Roger K. Scowcroft, Salt Lake City, for Appellant.

Jan Graham, James H. Beadles, and James M. Cope, Salt Lake City, for Appellee.

Before BENCH, BILLINGS, and GREENWOOD, JJ.

OPINION

GREENWOOD, Judge:

Defendant David Leslie Fife appeals the trial court's refusal to give him credit for time spent in the Utah State Hospital pending a determination that he was competent to stand trial. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

In 1992, defendant was charged, by information, with forcible sexual abuse, a second degree felony, in violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-404 (1995). Defendant's attorney filed a petition to inquire into defendant's competency to proceed to trial, pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 77-15-3 (1995). The trial court found defendant to be incompetent to stand trial and ordered him committed to the State Hospital. Defendant was in and out of jail and the State Hospital over the next two years, as the trial court continued to investigate his competency. He was in the State Hospital, pursuant to the trial court's commitment order, for a total of 257 days.

Eventually, the trial court found defendant to be competent, at which time defendant withdrew his original plea of not guilty and entered a guilty plea to attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third degree felony. As a condition of the plea, the State agreed that defendant would be sentenced on a Class A misdemeanor, pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-402 (1995). ¹ The trial court sentenced defendant to one year in the Salt Lake County Jail, the maximum sentence for a Class A misdemeanor. However, the trial court suspended the sentence and placed defendant on probation. When defendant later violated the terms of his probation, the trial court revoked his probation and ordered defendant to serve the one-year sentence.

Upon imposition of defendant's sentence, the trial court gave him credit for the 265 days he had spent in the Salt Lake County Jail, but refused credit for the 257 days defendant spent in the State Hospital, ordering him to serve the 100 day balance of the one-year sentence. Defendant completed his sentence on June 9, 1995.

Defendant appeals, claiming the trial court violated his constitutional rights by refusing to give him credit on his jail sentence for the time he had spent in the State Hospital pursuant to the trial court's commitment order. Both defendant and the State request that we address this issue despite its technical mootness as to defendant.

STANDARDS OF REVIEW

Whether an appellate court "reach[es] the merits of a mooted issue in any particular case rests within [the court's] discretion." Reynolds v. Reynolds, 788 P.2d 1044, 1046 (Utah App.1990); see also McRae v. Jackson, 526 P.2d 1190, 1191 (Utah 1974). Whether credit must be granted for time spent in the State Hospital as ordered by the trial court, pending a determination of competency, is an issue of law, which we review for correctness. See State v. Martinez, 896 P.2d 38, 39-40 (Utah App.1995).

MOOTNESS

Because defendant completed his sentence in the Salt Lake County Jail, the "requested judicial relief cannot affect the rights of the litigant[ ]," and the issue before this court is technically moot. Burkett v. Schwendiman, 773 P.2d 42, 44 (Utah 1989). Therefore, we must decide if this case presents an issue that meets the exception to the general rule that appellate courts "refrain from adjudicating issues when the underlying case is moot." Id.; see also Wickham v. Fisher, 629 P.2d 896, 900 (Utah 1981); Reynolds, 788 P.2d at 1045. The exception to the general rule occurs when three elements have been met: (1) the case presents an issue that affects the public interest; (2) the issue is likely to recur; and (3) because of the brief time that any one litigant is affected, the issue is capable of evading review. Wickham, 629 P.2d at 899; Burkett, 773 P.2d at 44.

Both parties agree that the issues involved in this case, while technically moot as to defendant, satisfy the three elements described above and that the case thus falls within the exception to the general rule. We concur and therefore address the primary issue presented.

CREDIT FOR PERIOD OF CONFINEMENT IN STATE HOSPITAL

Defendant was confined in the State Hospital for an inquiry into his competency to stand trial pursuant to section 77-15-3 of the Utah Code, which provides:

Whenever a person charged with a public offense or serving a sentence of imprisonment is or becomes incompetent to proceed, as defined in this chapter, a petition may be filed in the district court of the county where the charge is pending or where the person is confined.

Utah Code Ann. § 77-15-3(1) (1995). ² After examination and a hearing, the trial court found defendant incompetent to stand trial and ordered him committed to the custody of the Department of Human Services for evaluation and treatment to restore his competency. See Utah Code Ann. §§ 77-15-5, -6 (1995). As a result of that commitment order, defendant spent a total of 257 days in the State Hospital.

Defendant claims on appeal that the trial court violated his equal protection, due process, and double jeopardy rights under the United States Constitution by refusing to grant him credit for the time he spent in the State Hospital after he was found incompetent to stand trial.

Equal Protection

First, we address defendant's equal protection challenge. The Utah Supreme Court has noted that both the Utah and Federal constitutions "embody the same general principle: persons similarly situated should be treated similarly, and persons in different circumstances should not be treated as if their circumstances were the same." Malan v. Lewis, 693 P.2d 661, 669 (Utah 1984). Accordingly, the threshold determination is whether defendant was treated differently from others who are similarly situated.

Defendant argues that he was treated differently from other, similarly situated criminal defendants, because he was "confined ... longer than a similarly situated criminal defendant who was not found incompetent" and "an inequality exists as to the maximum amount of time which can be served by competent and incompetent defendants under the same circumstances."

On this point, defendant argues that the reasoning of State v. Richards, 740 P.2d 1314 (Utah 1987), is controlling. In Richards, an indigent criminal defendant was held in jail prior to trial due to his inability to post bail. Id. at 1315. At sentencing, the trial court refused to give credit for the time spent in jail. Id. The Utah Supreme Court held that "[f]ailure to grant credit against a maximum sentence for presentence incarceration imposed because of a defendant's inability to post bail violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." Id. Defendant argues that he must be granted credit for the time spent in the State Hospital because, like the defendant in Richards, he was detained by court order prior to trial. ³

However, Richards is explicitly limited to the disparate treatment of criminal defendants on the basis of their economic status. Id. at 1317 ("We limit our holding to the proposition that the Equal Protection Clause requires that credit against any sentence must be given for all presentence incarceration imposed on a defendant because he or she cannot post bail."); see also State v. Alvillar, 748 P.2d 207, 210 (Utah App.1988) (recognizing that Richards was "specifically limited ... to situations where the defendant was unable to post bail and therefore had to remain incarcerated because of 'economic status.' "). Accordingly, Richards is limited to prohibiting the classification of criminal defendants on the basis of their economic status. Id. at 210 (noting that the Richards court "rejected the proposition that credit should be given for presentence incarceration in all cases."). It does not compel the result defendant desires in this case.

In order to establish a violation of the guarantee of equal protection, a party must convince us that the law has been applied differently to identified classes of people "without a reasonably related legitimate government purpose." Amax Magnesium Corp. v. Tax Comm'n, 796 P.2d 1256, 1261 (1990). ⁴ In this case, defendant argues that the law impermissibly grants credit for time served to criminal defendants detained in jail or prison because they could not post bail, and denies credit for time spent in a mental health institution pending a finding of competency.

This precise issue was addressed in Harkins v. Wyrick, 589 F.2d 387 (8th Cir.1979). In Harkins, a federal court committed the defendant to a medical center pending the return of competency. Id. at 389. Subsequently, state authorities obtained custody of the defendant and he entered a guilty plea to robbery. Id. At sentencing, the state court refused to give him credit for the time spent in the medical center pending the return of competency, and the defendant appealed. Id. at 389-90. The Eighth Circuit rejected the defendant's claim that denial of credit for time spent in the medical center pending a return to competency violated his equal protection rights, reasoning that the disparate treatment was appropriate because of the defendant's mental status, and that he was differently situated from criminal defendants who could not make bail due to their economic status. The court reasoned as follows:

The equal protection clause does not prohibit treating different classes of persons differently. ....

... [Defendant] argues that if he had been released on bail from federal custody, he could have started serving his State sentence immediately upon its imposition. His mental condition, however, precluded him from the opportunity to make bail. This situation is distinguishable from when the failure to post bond is...