State v. Stevens

• Decision Date: 09 January 2007
• Citation: 2007 ME 5,912 A.2d 1229
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Dwayne B. STEVENS.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

912 A.2d 1229

2007 ME 5

STATE of Maine v. Dwayne B. STEVENS.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: September 20, 2006.

Decided: January 9, 2007.

Evert N. Fowle, District Attorney, Alan P. Kelley, Deputy Dist. Atty. (orally), Augusta, for State.

Sherry Tash, Esq. (orally), Hainke & Tash, Whitefield, for defendant.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, DANA, CALKINS, LEVY, and SILVER, JJ.

Majority: CLIFFORD, DANA, LEVY, and SILVER, JJ.

Dissenting: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CALKINS, J.

LEVY, J.

[¶ 1] The State of Maine appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior Court (Kennebec County, Studstrup, J.) granting, in part, Dwayne B. Stevens's motion to dismiss the indictment charging him with criminal OUI (Class C), 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A)(D)(2), (5)(D-1) (2005).¹ The State contends that the trial court erred when it held that, because Stevens's prior criminal homicide conviction resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle did not occur within ten years of the current OUI offense, the prior conviction cannot enhance the current charge to a Class C crime. The issue in this case involves the interpretation of section 2411(1-A)(D)(2), which does not contain a time limitation on the use of prior convictions, in relation to 17-A M.R.S. § 9-A(3) (2005), which imposes a ten-year limitation on the use of prior convictions to enhance a sentencing classification. Because the interplay between these two statutes is ambiguous, the rule of lenity applies and we resolve the ambiguity in favor of the defendant. Therefore, we affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] Stevens was charged by indictment with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants or while having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08% or more. The indictment alleges that the offense occurred on June 10, 2005. The indictment cites 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A)(D)(2), (5)(D-1), and charges Stevens with a Class C crime, alleging that he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter on February 20, 1986.

[¶ 3] Stevens pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the indictment based on 17-A M.R.S. § 9-A(3), which provides that a prior conviction must have taken place within ten years of the date of the current offense in order to enhance the sentence unless the law provides otherwise. There is no dispute that Stevens was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in February 1986. In its decision on the motion to dismiss, the court held that, because of section 9-A(3), a prior conviction must have occurred within ten years of a current OUI offense in order to charge the offense as a Class C crime. Because Stevens's conviction for vehicular manslaughter occurred nineteen years prior to the date charged in the current offense, the court concluded that the Class C charge was impermissible. It did not dismiss the entire indictment, but gave the State the choice of amending the indictment to eliminate the Class C allegations, or filing a new complaint charging Stevens with a Class D offense.

[¶ 4] Pursuant to 15 M.R.S. § 2115-A(1), (5) (2005) and M.R.App. P. 21(b), the Attorney General approved this appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

[¶ 5] This is an issue of statutory interpretation that we review de novo. State v. Bjorkaryd-Bradbury, 2002 ME 44, ¶ 9, 792 A.2d 1082, 1084. When we are called upon to interpret a statute, our primary goal "is to give effect to the Legislature's intent." Id. We determine the Legislature's intent by examining "the plain meaning of the statutory language . . . in the context of the whole statutory scheme." State v. Chittim, 2001 ME 125, ¶ 6, 775 A.2d 381, 383. We look beyond the statutory language to the legislative history if the statutory language is ambiguous. State v. Fournier, 617 A.2d 998, 999-1000 (Me.1992). The rule of lenity counsels us to resolve ambiguities in favor of the more lenient punishment when construing an ambiguous criminal statute that sets out multiple or inconsistent punishments. See State v. Shepley, 2003 ME 70, ¶ 15, 822 A.2d 1147, 1151; State v. Nastvogel, 2002 ME 97, ¶ 6, 798 A.2d 1114, 1117.

B. Statutes

[¶ 6] Title 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A) defines the crime of criminal OUI in four ways. Subsection A defines the crime as the act of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence or with the required blood-alcohol level, and subsections B, C, and D define the crime with reference to prior OUI convictions. Section 2411(5) establishes the penalties for conviction.²

OUI is ordinarily a Class D crime. 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(5). Class D crimes carry a maximum period of incarceration of less than one year, 17-A M.R.S. § 1252(2)(D) (2005), whereas Class C crimes have a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, 17-A M.R.S. § 1252(2)(C) (2005). The OUI statute under which Stevens was charged provides that OUI is enhanced to a Class C crime and carries a mandatory minimum sentence of six months incarceration if a defendant is found guilty of OUI and has "a prior criminal homicide conviction involving or resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs or with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08% or greater." 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A)(D)(2), (5)(D-1).³

[¶ 7] The general statute that restricts the time period for using a prior conviction to enhance a sentence is 17-A M.R.S. § 9-A(3), which provides: "Prior convictions may be considered for purposes of enhancing a present sentence if the date of each prior conviction precedes the commission of the offense being enhanced by no more than 10 years, except as otherwise provided by law." Another statute, 17-A M.R.S. § 6 (2005), makes section 9-A applicable to crimes defined outside of the Criminal Code, such as the OUI statute, "unless the context of the statute defining the crime clearly requires otherwise."

C. Interpretation

[¶ 8] The first step in statutory interpretation requires an examination of the "plain meaning of the statutory language . . . in the context of the whole statutory scheme." Chittim, 2001 ME 125, ¶ 6, 775 A.2d at 383. On its face, 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A)(D)(2) does not provide a time limitation on the use of prior convictions for vehicular homicide to enhance an offense from a Class D to a Class C crime. The statute expressly provides a ten-year limitation for the other enhancement provisions in sections 2411(1-A)(B) and (C), by using the language "within a 10-year period." The absence of this language from section 2411(1-A)(D) indicates that a ten-year limitation was not intended to apply to section D.

[¶ 9] However, this interpretation must be tested in light of the whole statutory scheme. Section 9-A(3), passed after 29-A M.R.S. § 2411(1-A), establishes a general ten-year limitation on the use of a prior conviction for the enhancement of a sentence in all criminal statutes. P.L. 2001, ch. 383, § 4 (effective Jan. 31, 2003). Pursuant to section 9-A(3), the ten-year restriction will always apply, "except as otherwise provided by law." The Legislature's use of the phrase "except as otherwise provided by law" in section 9-A(3) refers to explicit, not implicit, provisions in the law. The words and phrases of a statute are construed "according to the common meaning of the language." 1 M.R.S. § 72(3) (2005). The common meaning of the word "provide" is "[t]o furnish: supply." WEBSTER'S II NEW RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY DICTIONARY 948 (1984). Section 9-A(3)'s plain meaning is that, unless the Legislature has furnished or supplied a look-back period for prior convictions other than ten years, the ten-year period applies.

[¶ 10] This plain meaning is corroborated by other criminal laws in which the Legislature overrode the general rule of section 9-A(3) by explicitly adopting a period other than ten years. For example, several drug laws were amended at the same time that section 9-A(3) was passed to expressly exclude the ten-year limitation for certain provisions. The statutes all state that "[s]ection 9-A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence, except that, for the purposes of this paragraph, the date of each prior conviction may precede the commission of the offense being enhanced by more than 10 years." P.L.2001, ch. 383, § 119 (effective Jan. 31, 2003) (codified at 17-A M.R.S. §§ 1105-A(1)(B), 1105-B(1)(B), 1105-C(1)(B), 1105-D(1)(A) (2005)). Likewise, a sentencing statute was amended after the passage of section 9-A(3) to state that "[s]ection 9-A governs the use of prior convictions when determining a sentence, except that, for the purposes of this subsection, for violations under chapter 11, the dates of prior convictions may have occurred at any time." P.L.2003, ch. 688, § A-14 (effective July 30, 2004) (codified at 17-A M.R.S. § 1252(4-A) (2005)).⁴ Section 2411(1-A)(D) contains no such language.

[¶ 11] Although section 2411(1-A)(D) is plain on its face, in the context of the statutory scheme and section 9-A(3), it becomes ambiguous. It is unclear whether the plain meaning of section 2411(1-A)(D) should govern or whether, without explicit language in section 2411(1-A)(D) stating that a look-back period shorter or longer than the ten-year period applies, the ten-year limitation applies to the use of prior convictions for vehicular homicide.

[¶ 12] Because the plain meaning of section 2411(1-A)(D) is ambiguous in light of the statutory scheme, we look to the legislative history to determine the Legislature's intent. Fournier, 617 A.2d at 999-1000. The legislative summary of L.D. 1740, the bill containing section 9-A(3), explains in relevant part:

The Maine Revised Statutes, Title 17-A, section 9-A is amended to provide general rules for using prior convictions to enhance a new crime. These general rules are consistent with most existing provisions concerning the use of prior convictions, but do represent a substantive change in a few cases.

L.D. 1740, Summary (120th Legis.2001). The Legislature thus recognized that section 9-A(3) would operate to cause...