State v. Rideau, 2005-1470.

• Citation: 943 So.2d 559
• Decision Date: 02 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2005-1470.,2005-1470.
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Wilbert RIDEAU.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 559

943 So.2d 559

STATE of Louisiana v. Wilbert RIDEAU.

No. 2005-1470.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 2, 2006.

F. Wayne Frey, Carla S. Sigler, Assistant District Attorney, Lake Charles, Louisiana, for Appellee, State of Louisiana.

George Kendall, Holland & Knight, New York, New York, for Appellant, Wilbert Rideau.

Court composed of ULYSSES GENE THIBODEAUX, Chief Judge, SYLVIA R. COOKS and JAMES T. GENOVESE, Judges.

COOKS, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On January 15, 2005, Wilbert Rideau was convicted of manslaughter. He waived the delays for sentencing. The trial court sentenced Rideau to serve the maximum term of twenty-one years at hard labor, with credit for time served.¹ Since he had already served forty-four years in Angola, he was released from custody and became a free man. As part of the sentence, the trial court ordered Rideau "to pay all court costs associated with these proceedings." Rideau was not informed of the amount of the costs at the time of sentencing. Sixty days later, on March 15, 2005, the trial court issued an Order casting Rideau with court costs and indigent defense fees in the amount of $127,905.45. Rideau filed a Motion to Vacate the Order compelling him to pay itemized court costs and to reimburse the Indigent Defender's Board (IDB) for all costs associated with his defense, including expert witness fees and expenses. The trial court denied the motion and Rideau filed this appeal. Amicus curiae briefs in support of vacating the Order have been filed in this case, along with supporting affidavits submitted by public defenders and defense counsel throughout the State.² We have pointed out and discussed at length numerous constitutional issues raised in this unique case to alert the lower courts of the constitutional pitfalls which may arise in enforcing the costs mandate found in La.Code Crim. P. Article 887(A). In this case, we find the trial court lacked legal authority to act for the parish of Calcasieu and lacked standing in its own right to seek recoupment of funds expended from the Criminal Court Fund. The trial court, however, retains authority to enforce the January 15, 2005 sentence which ordered Rideau to pay costs and to assess reasonable costs upon presentment by the parties who actually "incurred" the Article 887(A) expenses, consistent with this opinion and the Constitutions of Louisiana and the United States. We also vacate that portion of the March 15, 2005 Order directing Rideau to reimburse the IDB for all costs, expert witness fees and expenses associated with his defense. Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:148 does not authorize the trial court to assess these costs against a defendant who was "initially indigent" but who may have the potential in the future to pay such costs.

LEGAL HISTORY OF THE CASE

In 1961, Wilbert Rideau robbed a bank in Lake Charles, Louisiana kidnapped three bank employees, and murdered one of the tellers, Julia Ferguson. Rideau was black, nineteen years old and indigent. The crime was sensational news in Lake Charles. Passions ran high and televised details of the crime, including an "interview" with Rideau was broadcast throughout the area. Because of the highly charged atmosphere in Lake Charles, the defense moved for a change of venue, which was denied by the trial court. Justice was administered swiftly, although not constitutionally, for Rideau. He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. The conviction was reversed by the United States Supreme Court. Rideau v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963). In a stinging indictment of the criminal justice system in Calcasieu Parish, the Court called the proceedings a "kangaroo court" and described the events leading up to and during the trial as a "spectacle." Id. at 725-26, 83 S.Ct. 1417.

Significantly, the Court noted the handling of Rideau's case was unprecedented in Calcasieu Parish and this Defendant was being singled out for special treatment by the criminal justice system. Id. at 727, 83 S.Ct. 1417. This observation, made by the Court in 1963, holds true even today.

Venue for the second trial was moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Rideau was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He petitioned for habeas corpus relief in federal court alleging violations under Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968).³ The State conceded that a reversal was required in Rideau's case and his second conviction was vacated.

Rideau was tried a third time in Baton Rouge. He was convicted again and sentenced to death. In light of the United States Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), the Louisiana Supreme Court annulled Rideau's death sentence and ordered that he be sentenced to life imprisonment. State v. Rideau, 278 So.2d 100 (La.1973).

Rideau filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in federal court alleging his indictment and conviction were unlawfully obtained because black jurors were systematically excluded from the grand jury in Calcasieu Parish. The United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Dennis⁴ writing, agreed, and reversed Rideau's third conviction. The federal appellate court found Calcasieu Parish officials used race-coded cards to exclude black individuals from the grand jury—a practice, the court noted, that had been prohibited by law "[f]or well over a century." Rideau v. Whitley, 237 F.3d 472, 484 (5th Cir.2000), cert. denied, Cain v. Rideau, 533 U.S. 924, 121 S.Ct. 2539, 150 L.Ed.2d 708 (2001).

While the federal appellate court reversed the conviction it left open the option for the State to retry Rideau "in accordance with the Constitution, the laws, and this opinion." Id. at 489. In January 2005, Rideau was tried a fourth time and convicted of manslaughter.

Although his convictions were reversed numerous times, Rideau did not escape punishment for the murder of Julia Ferguson, nor should he have. Rideau is sixty-four years old and has spent forty-four years in the Angola State Penitentiary, some of which was served either in isolation or on death row. Each reversal brought a new wave of publicity and has kept the details of the crime and the name attached to it—that of Wilbert Rideau— fresh in the minds of the people of Lake Charles for much of that time.

There is another reason Wilbert Rideau has remained in the news for forty-four years. During his incarceration, Rideau has rehabilitated himself and has become widely known as an award winning journalist and film maker.⁵ He has appeared twice as a featured speaker before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, D.C. For more than twenty years, with the approval of the Louisiana Department of Corrections, Rideau has traveled the State, with only an unarmed escort, speaking to at-risk teenagers about the dangers of a life of crime and the horrors of prison life.

In examining the legal history of this case, two facts emerge: first, the federal decisions reversing Rideau's convictions were not based on novel theories of law, but rather were founded on well-established principles of constitutional due process, which safeguards were not being implemented in the criminal justice system in Louisiana; and, second, for whatever reason, Rideau's case has been handled differently from other criminal cases in the Louisiana justice system.⁶ The present appeal illustrates these facts.

THE PRESENT APPEAL

In 2001, the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney, Rick Bryant, made the decision to retry Rideau in Lake Charles on one count of murder. Rideau offered to plead guilty to manslaughter. The State rejected the plea agreement and proceeded to trial.⁷ Because of pre-trial publicity in the Lake Charles area, the defense moved for a change of venue. In January 2005, an impartial jury panel was selected from Ouachita Parish. The District Attorney made the decision to have the Ouachita Parish jury transported to Lake Charles where expenses were incurred for lodging and meals for the duration of the trial.⁸ At the time of the fourth trial, Rideau was sixty-three years old, incarcerated, and still indigent.

On January 15, 2005, Rideau was convicted of manslaughter, the same crime he had agreed to plead guilty to earlier. The trial court sentenced him to serve the maximum term of twenty-one years at hard labor with the Department of Corrections, with credit for time served. Since Rideau had already served forty-four years in prison, he was released from custody. As part of the sentence, the trial court orally ordered Rideau "to pay all court costs associated with these proceedings."

On March 15, 2005, an Order was signed and filed with the Clerk of Court of Calcasieu Parish by Judge David A. Ritchie, the sentencing judge. The Order provided, in relevant part:

IT IS ORDERED that in accordance with La.C.Cr.P. art. 887, the above defendant be cast with all court costs related to his trial which resulted in a conviction of manslaughter on January 15, 2005. A copy of the itemized costs are attached hereto as Exhibit A and are made a part of this order.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the defendant reimburse the Indigent Defender's Board for all costs associated with his defense, including expert witness fees and expenses.

The costs, itemized by the trial court and attached to the Order, totaled $60,905.45, most of which were costs associated with impaneling, housing, feeding, transporting and providing security for the jury.⁹ Indigent Defense costs were estimated to be approximately $67,000.00, bringing the total court costs assessed to Rideau to $127,905.45. Rideau filed a Motion to Vacate the Order and a hearing was held. The trial court denied the defense motion. Rideau filed this appeal asserting several constitutional violations.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Rideau was assessed with the following: (1) court costs; and (2) indigent defense cost. We will discuss...