State v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 29 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. S-90-1067,S-90-1067
• Citation: 877 P.2d 1136,1992 OK CR 72
• Parties: STATE of Oklahoma, Appellant, v. William Boyd JOHNSON and Steven David Smith, Appellees.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 1136

877 P.2d 1136

STATE of Oklahoma, Appellant, v. William Boyd JOHNSON and Steven David Smith, Appellees.

No. S-90-1067.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

Oct. 29, 1992.

Opinion on Rehearing Jan. 26, 1994.

An Appeal from the District Court of Muskogee County; William H. Bliss, District Judge.

William Boyd Johnson and Steven David Smith, appellees, were charged with Operating a Chop Shop in the District Court of Muskogee County before the Honorable William H. Bliss, District Judge in Case No. CRF-88-527. The State of Oklahoma, under 22 O.S.1981, § 1053.1, is appealing a ruling of

District Judge William Bliss, District Court of Muskogee County. On September 11, 1990, in Case No. CRF-88-527, Judge Bliss granted Appellees' motion to dismiss the charge of Operating a Chop Shop under 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1), for the reasons that 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1) is unconstitutionally vague and invalid and that the Second Amended Information failed to properly allege a crime under the statute charged. The trial court's ruling is REVERSED and this case is REMANDED for trial

ON REHEARING

Appellant, the State, pursuant to 22 O.S.1981, § 1053.1, appealed a ruling of District Judge William Bliss, District Court of Muskogee County, who determined 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1) to be unconstitutionally vague and invalid. This Court issued its opinion reversing the trial court and remanding the case for trial (November 7, 1992). William Boyd Johnson and Steven David Smith, Appellees, filed their Petition herein, urging that this Court's remand for trial is inappropriate under the law and the prior rulings of this Court. This Court granted the Petition for Rehearing and directed the State to respond. Accordingly, as per our original opinion, this case is REMANDED for trial.

Norman D. Thygesen, Asst. Dist. Atty., Janet Bickel, Legal Intern, Muskogee, for appellant.

Julian K. Fite, Muskogee, for appellees.

OPINION

JOHNSON, Judge:

The State of Oklahoma, under 22 O.S.1981, § 1053.1, is appealing a ruling of District Judge William Bliss, District Court of Muskogee County. On September 11, 1990, in Case No. CRF-88-527, Judge Bliss granted Appellees' motion to dismiss the charge of Operating a Chop Shop under 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1), for the reasons that 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1) is unconstitutionally vague and invalid and that the Second Amended Information failed to properly allege a crime under the statute charged.

The State argues that Judge Bliss erred in determining 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1), unconstitutionally vague and invalid. Section 1503 provides:

C. 1. Any person who buys, disposes, sells, transfers, or possesses a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part, with knowledge that the vehicle identification number of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part has been altered, counterfeited, defaced, destroyed, disguised, falsified, forged, obliterated, or removed, upon conviction is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, or by a fine of not more than Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00), or both such imprisonment and fine.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this subsection shall not apply to a motor vehicle scrap processor who, in the normal legal course of business and in good faith, processes a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part by crushing, compacting, or other similar methods, provided that any vehicle identification number is not removed from the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part prior to or during any such processing.

3. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this subsection shall not apply to any owner or authorized possessor of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part which has been recovered by law enforcement authorities after having been stolen or where the condition of the vehicle identification number of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part is known to or has been reported to law enforcement authorities. It shall be presumed that law enforcement authorities have knowledge of all vehicle identification numbers on a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part which are altered, counterfeited, defaced, disguised, falsified, forged, obliterated, or removed, when law enforcement authorities deliver or return the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part to its owner or authorized possessor after it has been recovered by law enforcement authorities after having been reported stolen.

Judge Bliss offered neither reason nor finding in his Order declaring this Section unconstitutional. Thus, we must consider Appellees' response herein in addressing their attack on said statute.

We first address Appellees' "facial" challenge ¹ to the overbreadth of Section 1503. Appellees argue that the statute, because it does not take into consideration remanufacturing practices and because one subsection of the statute makes possession legal and another makes possession illegal, could conceivably sweep into its ambit innocent persons and legitimate activities. It is a fundamental principle of constitutional adjudication that "a person to whom a statute may constitutionally be applied will not be heard to challenge that statute on the ground that it may conceivably be applied unconstitutionally to others, in other situations not before the Court." ² Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 610, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 2915, 37 L.Ed.2d 830, 839 (1973). A statute is presumed to be constitutional and the person alleging its unconstitutionality has the burden of proving same beyond a reasonable doubt. Nunley v. State, 660 P.2d 1052, 1056 (Okl.Cr.1983); S.A.H. v. State, 753 P.2d 381, 383 (Okl.Cr.1988). Appellees have failed to carry that burden.

In Pegg v. State, 659 P.2d 370, 372 (Okl.Cr.1983), this Court considered an overbreadth challenge and recognized the limitations set out in Broadrick, supra, on the use of overbreadth to void a statute on its face. The Supreme Court advised that declaring a statute facially invalid should be used sparingly and only as a last resort. Further, the Supreme Court advised that particularly where conduct and not merely speech is involved, the overbreadth of a statute must not only be real, but substantial as well, and judged in relation to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep. To that end, whatever overbreadth may exist should be cured through case-by-case analysis of the fact situations to which its sanctions, assertedly, may not be applied.

For further guidance, we look to the considerations set forth in Hoffman Estates, supra, where the Supreme Court stated as follows:

In a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. If it does not, then the overbreadth challenge must fail. The court should then examine the facial vagueness challenge and, assuming the enactment implicates no constitutionally protected conduct, should uphold the challenge only if the enactment is impermissibly vague in all of its applications. A plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others. A court should therefore examine the complainant's conduct before analyzing other hypothetical applications of the law. (Emphasis added) Id. 455 U.S. at 102 S.Ct. at 1191.

When viewed in light of these principles, Appellees' overbreadth attack on Section 1503 must fail. Indeed, there is no constitutional right to possess motor vehicles or motor vehicle parts having altered identification numbers. The State has a legitimate interest in controlling harmful, constitutionally "unprotected" conduct. Section 1503 does not infringe any constitutionally protected aspects of the business of assembling vehicles from new and used parts, and is not overbroad as applied to such a business. We do not believe that the mere possibility of an erroneous application of this statute is justification for declaring it void.

We next address Appellees' facial challenge to the vagueness of Section 1503. Objections to vagueness under the Due Process Clause rest on the lack of notice, and hence may be overcome in any specific case where reasonable persons would know that their conduct is at risk. See Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U.S. 356, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988). This Court has adopted the following expression of the vagueness standard:

"A statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application...." Hayes v. Municipal Court of Oklahoma, 487 P.2d 974, 978 (Okl.Cr.1971); Switzer v. City of Tulsa, 598 P.2d 247, 248 (Okl.Cr.1979); and Pegg, supra.

It is well established that vagueness challenges to statutes which do not involve First Amendment freedoms must be examined in the light of the facts of the case at hand. See United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 95 S.Ct. 710, 42 L.Ed.2d 706 (1975), citing United States v. National Dairy Products Corp., 372 U.S. 29, 83 S.Ct. 594, 9 L.Ed.2d 561 (1963); See also Turner v. State, 549 P.2d 1346, 1350 (Okl.Cr.1976), where this Court held, "In considering the sufficiency of a statute, that statute must of necessity be examined in the light of the conduct of which a defendant is charged." (We note that Appellees' conduct cannot be evaluated in this case, since there was no trial.)

Section 1503 survives the vagueness test requiring an ordinary person of common intelligence to be able to ascertain the meaning of the statute. When read in a reasonable fashion and allowing the words their ordinary meaning, we find that the ordinary person is apprised of the type of conduct that is proscribed: knowingly possessing, selling, etc., of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts with their identification numbers destroyed, altered, obliterated, etc. This statute was enacted to curb trafficking in stolen motor...