State v. Frazier

• Decision Date: 29 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. C8-00-2230.,C8-00-2230.
• Citation: 649 N.W.2d 828
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. William Allen FRAZIER, petitioner, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

649 N.W.2d 828

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. William Allen FRAZIER, petitioner, Appellant.

No. C8-00-2230.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

August 29, 2002.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Michael F. Cromett, Assistant Public Defender, Minneapolis, for Appellant.

Mike Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, St. Paul, Alan Mitchell, St. Louis County Attorney, Duluth, for Respondent.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.

William Allen Frazier pleaded guilty to one count of a controlled substance crime committed for the benefit of a gang. Despite his plea, Frazier asked the district court to sentence him without regard to the crime committed for the benefit of a gang statute, Minn.Stat. § 609.229 (2000). He argued that the statute, as applied, denies equal protection and due process under the federal and state constitutions. In support of his argument, Frazier presented data which he asserted indicated that section 609.229 has a disparate impact on the basis of race. The district court found that Frazier's data demonstrated that section 609.229 has a disparate impact on racial minorities. Nevertheless, the court ultimately rejected Frazier's constitutional argument, finding that the statute survived constitutional scrutiny under Minnesota's active rational basis test. On appeal, the Minnesota Court of Appeals did not address whether Frazier's data demonstrated disparate impact, apparently accepting the district court's finding. However, the court of appeals concluded that the statute survived our active rational basis test. We affirm, but on different grounds.

Appellant William Allen Frazier is a black male and admits that he belongs to the New Breed Disciples, a criminal gang located in Duluth. The state alleged that on four separate occasions, Frazier sold crack cocaine to confidential reliable informants working with the Special Investigations Unit of the Duluth Police Department. The state charged Frazier with (1) one count of first-degree conspiracy to sell cocaine, in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 152.021, subd. 1(1), and 152.096, subd. 1 (2000), (2) two counts of second-degree controlled substance crime in violation of Minn.Stat. § 152.022, subd. 1(6) (2000), and (3) two counts of third-degree controlled substance crime in violation of Minn.Stat. § 152.023, subd. 1(1) (2000). When charging Frazier with these offenses, the state alleged that these offenses were committed for the benefit of a gang in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.229 (2000), a separate crime.

Frazier entered into a plea agreement with the state and pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree controlled substance crime committed for the benefit of a gang. The state then dismissed the remaining counts. At his sentencing hearing, Frazier moved the district court to sentence him without regard to section 609.229, which provides a mandatory minimum sentence for crimes committed for the benefit of a gang. He asserted that (1) the statute violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the federal and state constitutions and (2) under section 609.229, the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission (Guidelines Commission) lacks the statutory and jurisdictional authority to require a 12 month sentence enhancement for gang-related crimes.

In support of his sentencing motions, Frazier presented two arguments supporting his contention that section 609.229 offends the equal protection and due process clauses of the federal and state constitutions. First, Frazier argued that section 609.229 has a discriminatory impact on racial minorities. Frazier presented four kinds of data to support this argument. Frazier pointed to statistics from the Minnesota Gang Strike Force (Strike Force) which he argued indicate that about 92 percent of the 1,025 confirmed gang members in Minnesota are members of a racial minority. According to the Strike Force, 27 percent of confirmed gang members are white and 73 percent are minorities. Frazier arrived at the 92 percent figure by inferring that of the 281 confirmed gang members classified by the Strike Force as white, 202 are Hispanic and only 79 are white. He also used national level data to support his claim that minorities are more likely than whites to be gang members. Next, Frazier argued that data from the Guidelines Commission indicate that since 1994, only 10 percent of those sentenced under section 609.229 are white. Finally, Frazier presented data indicating that the incarceration rate of blacks is 12 times greater than their percentage of Minnesota's population. He did not offer any evidence regarding the strength and relevance of the data he presented to the court.

Frazier's second argument was that members of a racial minority who are convicted under section 609.229 are systematically given more severe sentences than individuals engaged in identical or similar conduct, but who are convicted under other statutes. More specifically, Frazier compared the crime committed for the benefit of a gang statute to Minnesota's RICO statute, Minn.Stat. §§ 609.901 et seq. (2000), and asserted that the state RICO statute does not establish an additional and consecutive sentence merely because the defendant is part of a criminal enterprise.

The state opposed Frazier's sentencing motions, contending that Frazier had failed to demonstrate that section 609.229 has a discriminatory impact on racial minorities. The state contested Frazier's assumption that not all of the individuals classified as white by the Strike Force are in fact white and questioned Frazier's use of national level data to bolster his claim regarding the racial make-up of gangs in Minnesota. The state also asserted that Frazier failed to demonstrate that the racial distribution of those incarcerated in Minnesota prisons or the racial distribution of those convicted of drug offenses in Minnesota was due to section 609.229. Finally, the state argued that even if the data did demonstrate that section 609.229 has a discriminatory impact, the statute survives scrutiny under the active rational basis test specified in State v. Russell, 477 N.W.2d 886, 889-90 (Minn.1991). Like Frazier, the state did not offer any evidence regarding the strength and relevance of the data presented by Frazier to the court.

The district court rendered its decision based on oral arguments of counsel and the parties' memoranda of law. With respect to Frazier's constitutional claim, the court found that section 609.229 has a racially disparate impact, noting that Frazier had "provided several statistics citing the number of minorities who have been sentenced under the gang statute as compared to whites." The court then found that Frazier failed to meet his burden under Minnesota's active rational basis test as set forth in Russell. More specifically, the court found that the legislature chose to address the threat of gangs to the safety of citizens by enhancing the penalties of crimes committed for the benefit of a gang. The court concluded that there was a genuine and substantial reason for the statute.

The court also found that Frazier's comparison of the crime committed for the benefit of a gang statute with the state RICO statutes was misplaced because the RICO statutes are seldom used in prosecution and the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines do not contain a severity level for such convictions. The court noted that Frazier failed to present evidence that RICO is used primarily against whites. With respect to Frazier's statutory claim, the court found that Minn.Stat. § 244.09, which authorizes the Guidelines Commission to promulgate the presumptive sentence duration for felony offenses, provides the statutory authority for the Guidelines Commission to require a 12-month enhancement for gang-related crimes. The court then sentenced Frazier to a 48-month executed term on the second-degree controlled substance conviction and an additional consecutive 12-month executed term on the crime committed for the benefit of a gang conviction.

Frazier appealed and the court of appeals held that section 609.229 does not offend the Equal Protection Clause of the Minnesota Constitution. State v. Frazier, 631 N.W.2d 432, 436-37 (Minn.App.2001). The court did not address whether Frazier's data indicated that section 609.229 had a disparate impact on racial minorities. The court applied the active rational basis test set forth in Russell to evaluate the statute's constitutionality. Id. at 435.

In its analysis, the court of appeals identified certain evidence presented at a senate subcommittee hearing on the crime committed for the benefit of a gang bill. See Hearing on S.F. 809 before the Senate Criminal Law Subcommittee, 77 Minn. Leg. (April 4, 1991). Based on this evidence, the court of appeals concluded that the statute survives Russell's active rational basis test because the legislature based its decision to enact section 609.229 on more than anecdotal evidence. 631 N.W.2d at 436. The evidence identified by the court is the following. First, an assistant attorney general testified that crimes committed for the benefit of a gang are more serious and deserve a greater penalty because of the impact on the victim and the community. Second, the legislature was presented with a number of newspaper articles reflecting the seriousness of the gang problem, including an article detailing the dismissal of felony charges in three cases in Hennepin County because witnesses were threatened by gang members. Third, a psychologist with the Minneapolis Public Schools testified that an increasing number of students are afraid to leave their homes at night because of street gangs and that he has observed young children flashing gang signs and has noticed gang insignias on student folders. The psychologist also testified that there was a recent death threat by a gang member against an assistant principal and that if nothing was done to respond...