State v. Mahler
| Decision Date | 10 August 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 32,32 |
| Citation | 735 S.W.2d 226 |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Thomas Lee MAHLER, Appellant. |
Steven C. Douglas, Crossville, for appellant.
W.J. Michael Cody, Atty. Gen. and Reporter, Albert L. Partee, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for appellee.
In this post-conviction proceeding appellant challenges the sentence which he received after pleading guilty to the offense of murder in the second degree. He had been indicted for murder in the first degree on October 23, 1983. Appointed counsel thoroughly investigated the case and repeatedly sought to strike a plea bargain agreement with the District Attorney General. Finally on March 21, 1984, appellant entered a guilty plea to murder in the second degree with an agreed sentence of fifty years in the penitentiary as a Range II aggravated offender. As a part of the agreement, related charges of larceny of an automobile and receiving and concealing stolen property were voluntarily dismissed by the State with the approval of the trial judge.
The offense was a highly aggravated one, and had the prosecution proceeded appellant was in grave danger of receiving the death penalty or, almost at a minimum, a sentence of life imprisonment for murder in the first degree. He deliberately strangled to death a young naval officer who had given him a ride in the officer's automobile. He placed the body of the officer and some of the latter's personal possessions near an exit on Interstate 40 in the vicinity of Crossville, Tennessee, and proceeded to Arkansas and then Missouri in the officer's automobile. His confession was video taped and is in the record of the post-conviction proceedings. Appellant confessed to deliberate, unprovoked murder of his victim, and there was little reason for the State to strike a plea bargain other than that the victim's family were from out of state and that the trial would have been both an inconvenient and harrowing experience for them.
Counsel appointed for appellant thoroughly investigated the case and realized its seriousness. He was finally able to elicit from the District Attorney General the plea bargain above referred to, and it was knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently accepted by appellant. The trial judge carefully followed the provisions of relevant statutes and cases in accepting the guilty plea, which almost certainly appears to have been in the manifest best interests of appellant.
Less than six months later, however, appellant filed a post-conviction petition alleging that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel. Both the trial court and the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed that this claim was overwhelmingly refuted by the record, and that conclusion is supported by abundant material evidence.
It appears, however, that appellant did not have a prior criminal record sufficient to justify his being sentenced as a Range II offender under ordinary circumstances. He therefore contends that the sentence imposed was illegal and that his attorney failed to render competent or effective legal services by not advising him of that fact.
Both the trial judge and the majority of the panel of the Court of Criminal Appeals which reviewed the case upheld the sentence and dismissed the post-conviction petition. There was a dissenting opinion, however, filed in this case, and the issue has also divided other panels of the Court of Criminal Appeals. For this reason we granted review.
We affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals. The sentence in this case, fifty years, is not an illegal sentence. The punishment for murder in the second degree is imprisonment for life or for a period of not less than ten years. T.C.A. § 39-2-212.
It is true that appellant would not have qualified as a Range II offender had he been sentenced after trial. Further he was not advised that he would not ordinarily qualify for a Range II...
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...undertaking on the part of the state. The accused may be required to make concessions if he or she desires to accept the offer. 68 In State v. Mahler the Tennessee Supreme Court held that an accused can bargain to plead guilty to an enhanced range of punishment although he does not qualify ......
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...waives any irregularity as to offender classification or release eligibility." Id.; Hicks, 945 S.W.2d at 709; see also State v. Mahler, 735 S.W.2d 226, 228 (Tenn.1987). Accordingly, the parties may agree to a "hybrid" sentence that "mixes and matches" range assignment, term of years, and re......
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