State v. Martello
| Decision Date | 13 December 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 2001-1048.,2001-1048. |
| Citation | 97 Ohio St.3d 398,780 N.E.2d 250,2002 Ohio 6661 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellant, v. MARTELLO, Appellee. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Thomas L. Sartini, Ashtabula County Prosecuting Attorney, and Angela M. Scott, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellant.
David H. Bodiker, Ohio Public Defender, and Stephen P. Hardwick, Assistant Public Defender, for appellee.
Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, David M. Gormley, State Solicitor, Darrell M. Pierre Jr. and Robert L. Strayer, Assistant Attorneys General, urging reversal for amicus curiae Attorney General of Ohio.
{¶ 1} We are required to determine whether the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the United States and Ohio Constitutions preclude a criminal defendant who is sanctioned for violating Ohio's postrelease control statute, R.C. 2967.28, from being criminally prosecuted for the same conduct that was the reason for the sanction. For the reasons that follow, we find that the criminal prosecution does not offend principles of double jeopardy. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.
{¶ 2} In August 1997, defendant-appellee, Joseph Martello, was sentenced on charges of burglary and theft to concurrent six-month prison terms. On February 17, 1998, after serving the six months, appellee was released from custody and placed on postrelease control, including the requirement that he report periodically to a parole officer. Beginning in February 1999, appellee failed to report to his parole officer.
{¶ 3} On March 31, 1999, the Ohio Adult Parole Authority ("APA") declared appellee to be a "violator at large." See R.C. 2967.15(C)(1). On September 9, 1999, appellee was indicted on one count of escape pursuant to R.C. 2921.34(A)(1), a felony of the third degree, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. On or about October 27, 1999, appellee was taken into custody. On October 29, 1999, appellee was arraigned in the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas on the escape charge and pled not guilty.
{¶ 4} On November 22, 1999, the Ohio Parole Board ruled that appellee's failure to report to his parole officer on several occasions was a violation of his postrelease control and ordered that appellee be incarcerated for 91 days for this violation. R.C. 2967.28(F)(3). After he served the 91-day term, appellee moved to dismiss the escape charge. Appellee argued that principles of double jeopardy prohibited his prosecution for escape.
{¶ 5} The trial court held a hearing on the motion to dismiss and on April 5, 2000, granted the motion, ruling that the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the United States and Ohio Constitutions barred appellee's prosecution for escape because that charge was for the same actions that had already resulted in the 91-day term of incarceration. The court of appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
{¶ 6} The cause is now before this court pursuant to the allowance of a discretionary appeal.
{¶ 7} The Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution, contained in the Fifth Amendment, provides that no "person [shall] be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." Section 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution similarly provides, "No person shall be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense." The protections afforded by the two Double Jeopardy Clauses are coextensive. State v. Gustafson (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 425, 432, 668 N.E.2d 435.
{¶ 8} It has long been recognized that double jeopardy principles do not prohibit the imposition of every additional sanction that could be labeled "punishment" in common parlance. Hudson v. United States (1997), 522 U.S. 93, 98-99, 118 S.Ct. 488, 139 L.Ed.2d 450; United States ex rel. Marcus v. Hess (1943), 317 U.S. 537, 549, 63 S.Ct. 379, 87 L.Ed. 443. Rather, double jeopardy principles protect "only against the imposition of multiple criminal punishments for the same offense * * * and then only when such occurs in successive proceedings." (Emphasis deleted.) Hudson, 522 U.S. at 99, 118 S.Ct. 488, 139 L.Ed.2d 450; Helvering v. Mitchell (1938), 303 U.S. 391, 399, 58 S.Ct. 630, 82 L.Ed. 917; Missouri v. Hunter (1983), 459 U.S. 359, 366, 103 S.Ct. 673, 74 L.Ed.2d 535.
{¶ 9} For our purposes here, the question that must be answered is whether appellee's 91-day term served for his postrelease control violation placed him in jeopardy so that his criminal prosecution for escape under R.C. 2921.34(A)(1),1 which clearly could lead to a "criminal punishment" in double jeopardy terminology for that offense, is forbidden. In order to resolve the issue presented, we must consider the nature of the 91-day prison term administratively imposed on appellee, and determine whether that term imposed for violation of postrelease control should be categorized as "criminal punishment" for double jeopardy purposes, so that appellee was placed in jeopardy by that action. To conduct this analysis, it is first necessary to consider what postrelease control is and then to examine the process by which violators of postrelease control are disciplined.
{¶ 10} This court recently summarized and reviewed the history behind the comprehensive revision of Ohio's Criminal Code by the General Assembly's passage of Am.Sub.S.B. No. 2 ("SB 2") and related legislation, which took effect on July 1, 1996 (146 Ohio Laws, Part IV, 7136). Woods v. Telb (2000), 89 Ohio St.3d 504, 507-509, 733 N.E.2d 1103. One of SB 2's primary goals was "truth in sentencing," meaning that the sentence that is imposed by the trial judge is the sentence that actually is served, unless the judge alters it. Id. at 508, 733 N.E.2d 1103.
{¶ 11} To foster truth in sentencing, SB 2 eliminated indefinite sentences and parole, two key components of the former sentencing system. Id. In place of parole, SB 2 introduced the concept of postrelease control, which is mandatory for some offenders and is imposed at the discretion of the Parole Board for others. Id.; R.C. 2967.28. "`Post-release control' means a period of supervision by the adult parole authority after a prisoner's release from imprisonment that includes one or more post-release control sanctions imposed under section 2967.28 of the Revised Code." R.C. 2967.01(N).
{¶ 12} The consequences of violating postrelease control sanctions are detailed in R.C. 2967.28(F). R.C. 2967.28(F)(3) authorizes the Parole Board to impose a prison term if the board determines after a hearing that a person released on postrelease control (a "releasee," see R.C. 2967.01[J]) has violated the sanctions or conditions of the postrelease control.
{¶ 13} R.C. 2967.28(F)(4) specifically provides that a releasee who has violated any postrelease control sanction or conditions by committing a felony Thus, R.C. 2967.28 specifically provides that appellee faced both an administrative prison term for the violation of his postrelease control sanctions and an additional prison term for the conduct that was the substance of that violation, prosecuted as a felony offense in its own right. The issue is whether these provisions of R.C. 2967.28(F)(4) violate appellee's double jeopardy rights.
{¶ 14} In Woods, this court found that the postrelease control statute withstood constitutional scrutiny on the two grounds that were under consideration in that case, holding, "R.C. 2967.28 does not violate the separation of powers doctrine or the Due Process Clauses of the United States or Ohio Constitutions." Id., 89 Ohio St.3d 504, 733 N.E.2d 1103, paragraph one of the syllabus. However, Woods did not involve a challenge to the statute on double jeopardy grounds. Although many district courts of appeals have considered the double jeopardy issue raised in the case sub judice, this court has not previously ruled on the issue.
{¶ 15} In its consideration of whether the postrelease control statute violated the separation-of-powers doctrine, this court in Woods made an observation that is relevant to the issue in this case — i.e., whether R.C. 2967.28 violates principles of double jeopardy. Specifically, in reviewing the court of appeals' conclusion that postrelease control is different from the prior system of parole because postrelease control begins only after an offender completes the sentence imposed by the trial court, this court stated, "We find this conclusion to be incorrect because * * * postrelease control is part of the original judicially imposed sentence." Id. at 512, 733 N.E.2d 1103.
{¶ 16} In a further observation that is relevant to our issue, the Woods court went on to state that "post-release control sanctions are sanctions aimed at behavior modification in the attempt to reintegrate the offender safely into the community, not mere punishment for an additional crime." Id. Although these statements are not dispositive of the double jeopardy issue, they provide a strong indicator of the appropriate view of the statute. In fact, as the court of appeals acknowledged, many appellate courts have been relying on these observations from Woods to find no violation of double jeopardy principles in these types of cases.
We find that this court's statements in Woods, although made in a different context, are fully applicable in our...
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