State v. Shattuck

• Decision Date: 18 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. C6-03-362.,C6-03-362.
• Citation: 704 N.W.2d 131
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Robert Allen SHATTUCK, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

704 N.W.2d 131

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Robert Allen SHATTUCK, Appellant.

No. C6-03-362.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

August 18, 2005.

Rehearing granted October 6, 2005.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Roy G. Spurbeck, Assistant State Public Defender, Office of the State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Mike Hatch, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Amy Klobuchar, Hennepin County Attorney, Michael Richardson, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for Respondent.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

PAGE, Justice.

In an order issued last December, we determined that under Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), the district court's imposition of an upward durational departure from the presumptive sentence prescribed by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines violated appellant Robert Shattuck's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. State v. Shattuck, 689 N.W.2d 785, 786 (Minn.2004). We indicated a full opinion would follow, and we directed the parties to file supplemental briefs on the issue of remedy. The issues presented by this appeal arise out of the sexual assault of 17-year-old R.E. At about 10:30 p.m. on January 30, 2001, R.E. was walking home after getting off a bus in south Minneapolis when a man pushing a bicycle approached her from behind and asked the time. As R.E. reached for her watch, the man displayed a knife, threatened her, and forced her to walk down an alley. When they stopped, the man took $25 from R.E.'s pocket and told her to pull down her pants. From behind, he penetrated her vaginally with his fingers and penis, causing her pain. When R.E. asked him to stop, the man threatened her again. After the man finished, he cleaned his hands in the snow and then punched R.E. in the face, breaking her jaw. The man told R.E. that if she told anyone about the assault he would kill her, and rode away on his bicycle.

The police investigation quickly focused on Shattuck, who worked at a nearby restaurant and had gotten off work shortly before the assault. After Shattuck's picture was shown on a televised report about the assault, he went to Georgia, where he was arrested on an unrelated charge. At trial, the state introduced substantial circumstantial evidence as well as DNA evidence linking Shattuck to the assault. At the jury instruction conference, Shattuck argued that under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), any aggravating factor that could expose him to an enhanced sentence under Minnesota's repeat sex offender statute had to be decided by the jury, not the district court. The court denied Shattuck's request to so instruct the jury. The jury found Shattuck guilty of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and one count of first-degree aggravated robbery.

At the time of the offense, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping with great bodily harm were both severity level eight offenses under the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. Minn. Sent. Guidelines IV, V (2000). Shattuck's criminal history score was nine, which included a custody status point, making his presumptive sentence 161 (156-166) months for these offenses.¹ Minn. Sent. Guidelines II.B.2, IV (2000). The repeat sex offender statute provides that for certain forms of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, the district court "shall commit" the defendant for not less than 30 years if it finds that (1) an aggravating factor exists which provides grounds for an upward departure under the Sentencing Guidelines, and (2) the defendant has a previous conviction for criminal sexual conduct in the first, second or third degrees. Minn.Stat. § 609.109, subd. 4(a) (2004).²

The district court sentenced Shattuck to the presumptive 161-month prison term for kidnapping, and to an enhanced 360-month (30-year) term for first-degree criminal sexual conduct pursuant to section 609.109, subdivision 4, and ordered the sentences to be served concurrently. The court found four aggravating factors to justify the enhanced sentence: (1) the victim was particularly vulnerable; (2) the victim was treated with particular cruelty; (3) the victim suffered great emotional harm; and (4) the assault was planned.

The court of appeals affirmed Shattuck's conviction and sentence. State v. Shattuck, No. C6-03-362, 2004 WL 772220 (Minn.App. Apr.13, 2004). The court held that the district court "acted within its discretion in finding that aggravating factors provided a sufficient basis for sentencing Shattuck under the mandatory-minimum-sentencing statute, and that decision did not violate the holding of Apprendi." Id. at *6. While Shattuck's petition for review was pending in this court, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Blakely. In accordance with the rule announced in that case, we reverse the court of appeals and remand to the district court.

I.

The first issue before us is whether the imposition of an enhanced sentence under Minn.Stat. § 609.109, subd. 4, which mandates a 30-year minimum sentence when the district court determines at sentencing that "the crime involved an aggravating factor that would provide grounds for an upward departure under the Sentencing Guidelines," violated Shattuck's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. In our earlier order in this case, we answered this question in the affirmative, and stated that "because imposition of the presumptive sentence is mandatory absent judicial findings under the legislatively-created Guidelines regime, the presumptive sentence is the maximum penalty authorized solely by the jury's verdict for purposes of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000)." State v. Shattuck, 689 N.W.2d at 786.

Issues of constitutional interpretation are issues of law that we review de novo. Star Tribune Co. v. Univ. of Minn. Bd. of Regents, 683 N.W.2d 274, 283 (Minn.2004). Minnesota statutes are presumed constitutional, and the party challenging a statute on constitutional grounds must demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the statute violates a provision of the constitution. State v. Grossman, 636 N.W.2d 545, 548 (Minn.2001).

We begin the analysis in this case by noting that the rule that has evolved in the Apprendi line of cases is based on the constitutional right to jury trial and the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. at 477, 120 S.Ct. 2348; Blakely v. Washington, 124 S.Ct. at 2536; United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 738, 748, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). The Supreme Court explained in Booker that as sentencing enhancements have increased in recent years the jury's findings as to the underlying crime have become less significant. Id. at 751. "The new sentencing practice forced the Court to address the question how the right of jury trial could be preserved, in a meaningful way guaranteeing that the jury would still stand between the individual and the power of the government under the new sentencing regime. * * * [The] answer [is] not motivated by Sixth Amendment formalism, but by the need to preserve Sixth Amendment substance." Id. at 752. The constitutional rule that has evolved is:

Any fact (other than a prior conviction) which is necessary to support a sentence exceeding the maximum authorized by the facts established by a plea of guilty or a jury verdict must be admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Id. at 756.

In Apprendi, the defendant pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, stemming from his firing several gunshots into the home of an African-American family that had recently moved into an all-white neighborhood. 530 U.S. at 469,120 S.Ct. 2348. Under New Jersey law, the offense carried a penalty range of 5 to 10 years. Id. at 470, 120 S.Ct. 2348. A separate hate-crime statute provided for an enhanced sentencing range of 10 to 20 years if the trial judge found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant committed the crime with a purpose to intimidate an individual or group of individuals because of, inter alia, race. Id. at 468-69, 120 S.Ct. 2348. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial judge found that Apprendi's actions were made with a purpose to intimidate, and imposed an enhanced 12-year term. Id. at 471, 120 S.Ct. 2348.

The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the New Jersey statutory scheme allowing the judge to impose an enhanced sentence, based on a judicial finding using a preponderance standard, violated constitutional due process and jury-trial guarantees. Id. at 476-77, 491-92, 120 S.Ct. 2348; see State v. Grossman, 636 N.W.2d at 548

. The Court announced the following rule: "Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490,

120 S.Ct. 2348. In reaching this conclusion, the Court described the distinction between elements of the crime and sentencing factors as "constitutionally novel and elusive," and made clear that "the relevant inquiry is not one of form but of effect — does the required finding expose the defendant to a greater punishment than that authorized by the jury's verdict?" Id. at 494, 120 S.Ct. 2348 (footnote omitted); Grossman, 636 N.W.2d at 550-51 (footnote omitted).

Following Apprendi, this court applied its rule in a number of cases. In Grossman, we held that the patterned sex offender statute, which allowed the judge to increase by 10 years the maximum prison sentence prescribed by the first-degree criminal sexual conduct statute, based on the judge's factual findings using a pre-ponderance-of-evidence standard, violated due process. 636 N.W.2d at 551. See also O'Meara v. State, 679 N.W.2d 334, 340-41 (Minn.2004)

(holding...