State v. Langley

• Decision Date: 22 May 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-KK-1041.,06-KK-1041.
• Citation: 958 So.2d 1160
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Ricky Joseph LANGLEY.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

958 So.2d 1160

STATE of Louisiana v. Ricky Joseph LANGLEY.

No. 06-KK-1041.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 22, 2007.

Clive A. Stafford Smith, Phyllis E Mann, Alexandria, Christine M. Lehmann, for Applicant.

Charles C. Foti, Jr., Attorney General, John F. DeRosier, District Attorney, Carla S. Sigler, Cynthia S. Killingsworth, Sharon D. Wilson, Frederick W. Frey, Assistant District Attorneys, for Respondent.

Ellis Paul Adams, Jr., for Louisiana District Attorneys Association, Amicus Curiae.

Robert Stephen Glass and G. Benjamin Cohen, for Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Amicus Curiae.

John Howard Holdridge and Katherine Schwartzmann, for American Civil Liberties Union, Amicus Curiae.

JOHNSON, Justice.

We granted certiorari in this capital murder case to determine whether the defendant, Ricky Joseph Langley, who was charged with first-degree murder, but was found guilty of the lesser-included offense of second degree murder, may be retried for first degree murder following reversal of his conviction.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Langley was indicted by a grand jury for first degree murder, in violation of LSA-14:30. He was convicted in 1994 of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On appeal, this Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, but on application for rehearing, remanded the case to the trial court for evidentiary proceedings concerning the validity of the grand jury indictment and Langley's claim of intentional discrimination in the selection of grand jury foreperson. State v. Langley, 1995-1489 (La.4/14/98), 711 So.2d 651, reh'g granted in part (La.6/19/98). On remand, the trial court granted Langley's motion to quash the indictment and vacated his conviction and sentence. This Court upheld that judgment on appeal by the state. State v. Langley, 1995-1489 (La.4/3/02), 813 So.2d 356 ("Langley I").

Langley was re-indicted on a charge of first degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Due to overwhelming pretrial publicity, the jury was selected from Orleans Parish, but the case was tried in Calcasieu Parish, where the sequestered jury was housed for the duration of the trial proceedings. After trial by jury, the jury rejected Langley's insanity defense and convicted him of the lesser included offense of second degree murder, a violation of LSA-14:30.1. Langley was then given the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor.

On appeal, Langley argued, inter alia, that the temporary absences of the trial judge from the courtroom during portions of the voir dire examination of prospective jurors, and during closing arguments of counsel, constituted a structural defect in the proceedings, exempt from harmless-error analysis, which required reversal of his conviction and sentence. The court of appeal agreed that "the errors committed by the trial judge, in absenting himself from the proceedings and failing to maintain decorum, were structural errors requiring reversal of the Defendant's conviction without a showing of actual prejudice." State v. Langley, 2004-0269, p. 15 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/29/04), 896 So.2d 200, 210 ("Langley II").

In Langley II, a majority of the panel further concluded that the structural defects not only constituted reversible error, but also rendered the jury's verdict absolutely void, resulting in neither a conviction for second degree murder, nor an acquittal of first degree murder. The appellate opinion held that the state could exercise its plenary discretion over the subsequent conduct of the prosecution pursuant to LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 61, and could retry relator for capital murder, thereby exposing the Defendant once again to the prospect of the death penalty. Langley, 2004-0269 at 18-19, 896 So.2d at 211-12 ("[T]he verdict resulting from structural error [is] a nullity. . . . The necessary consequence of such a verdict is retrial, as though no verdict had been reached.").

Chief Judge Thibodeaux dissented from that portion of the majority opinion, considering the remarks about the nullity of the verdict both advisory and ill-advised, given that Langley had asked the court of appeal to review only his conviction of second degree murder for error, and not his acquittal of first degree murder. Langley, 2004-0269 at 1-2, 896 So.2d at 212-13 (Thibodeaux, C.J., dissenting in part and concurring in part) ("We must remember that it is the defendant who appealed. None of the fifteen assignments of error asserted by the defendant deal with the effect of an absolutely null verdict. . . . [T]he majority's opinion clearly states that: `[t]he question to be resolved is whether the trial judge's conduct constitutes trial error, which is subject to review for harmless error, or structural error, which defines analysis by harmless error standards.' . . . Nothing more and nothing less.").

After the state re-indicted Langley for first degree murder, he moved to quash the indictment. The trial court granted the motion, limiting the state to retrial of the defendant for second degree murder only. The court considered that retrial for first degree murder would violate Langley's protections against double jeopardy and penalize him for his success on appeal by forcing him to endure another capital prosecution.

The state sought review. The court of appeal granted the state's writ, holding that its earlier pronouncements in Langley II regarding the absolute nullity of the defendant's prior conviction were not dicta, but were binding on the lower court as the "law of the case." State v. Langley, 2005-1475 (La.App. 3 Cir. 4/5/06), 925 So.2d 778 (Table) ("Langley III"). This court granted Langley's writ to review the correctness of that decision.¹

LAW AND ANALYSIS

The defendant contends that the court of appeal's ruling violated the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy by allowing the state to proceed with a charge of first degree murder on retrial when the defendant has previously been acquitted of first degree murder. The defendant also contends that the court of appeal violated the right to appeal found in the Louisiana Constitution.

The state contends that the prohibitions against double jeopardy found in the federal and state constitutions do not prohibit retrial of Langley on a charge of first degree murder. The state argues that, because the defendant's conviction of the lesser-included offense of second degree murder was set aside on the basis of a structural defect in Langley II, that trial was rendered void ab initio. The state asserts that the void trial is akin to one which is "illegally constituted" pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 595, and that Langley cannot be considered as having been previously placed in jeopardy such that double jeopardy principles are violated by his re-indictment on charges of first degree murder.

Law of the Case Doctrine

Although neither the state nor the defendant sought review of the court of appeal's judgment in Langley II, this court is not prevented from reviewing the court of appeal's prior reasoning, particularly when that reasoning results in subsequent consequences now before the court. In Langley II, the court of appeal found that structural error occurred in Langley's trial, which error was not subject to an analysis for harmless error and which rendered his trial absolutely null. Although the appellate court found itself unable to revisit that reasoning in Langley III under the doctrine of "law of the case," this court is not similarly constrained. The law of the case principle "is not applied to prevent a higher court from considering the correctness of a ruling by an intermediate appellate court." Levine v. First Nat. Bank of Commerce, 2006-0394 p. 3, n. 4 (La.12/15/06), 948 So.2d 1051; Pumphrey v. City of New Orleans, 2005-0979 p. 7 (La.4/4/06), 925 So.2d 1202, 1207. Although this issue usually arises after this court has denied supervisory writs, and the case returns, there is no reason that the same principles of law would not be equally applicable in this case. As stated by Justice Tate in Day v. Campbell-Grosjean Roofing & Sheet Metal Corp., 260 La. 325, 256 So.2d 105, 107 (La.1972), most recently cited in Pumphrey, supra:

. . . the law-of-the-case principle is applied merely as a discretionary guide: Argument is barred where there is merely doubt as to the correctness of the former ruling, but not in cases of palpable former error or so mechanically as to accomplish manifest injustice. Further, the law-of-the-case principle is not applied so as to prevent a higher court from examining the correctness of the ruling of the previous court.

Although the fact of the reversal of Langley's conviction for second degree murder is not before the court, the court of appeal's reasoning which resulted in the reversal and remand must be reviewed in light of the double jeopardy implications of that trial.

We turn now to a review of the court of appeal's reasoning which invalidated Langley's conviction of second degree murder.

Analysis of Court of Appeal's Reasoning

The principal question raised by Langley on the direct appeal of his conviction for second degree murder was whether the error he asserted, the absence of the trial judge from portions of his trial, rose to a level which would require reversal of his conviction.

In Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991), the Supreme Court distinguished between structural defects in a criminal trial and all other errors committed during the course of the proceedings. The Court thereby sought to clarify when harmless-error analysis is appropriately conducted by an appellate court (for trial error) and when it is not (structural defect). As to the latter class of error, "structural defects in the constitution of the trial mechanism . . . defy analysis by `harmless-error' standards . . . [because they] affect the framework within which the trial proceeds, rather than...