State v. Van Lehman

• Decision Date: 28 September 2018
• Docket Number: No. 112,500,112,500
• Citation: 427 P.3d 840
• Parties: STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Alfred Van LEHMAN Jr., Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

427 P.3d 840

STATE of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Alfred Van LEHMAN Jr., Appellant.

No. 112,500

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Opinion filed September 28, 2018.

Ryan J. Eddinger, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellant.

Lance J. Gillett, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Johnson, J.:

Alfred Van Lehman Jr. seeks review of the Court of Appeals' decision to affirm the district court's modification of its originally ordered period of postrelease supervision after the original term of supervision had ended. We hold that, when the district court purported to correct Lehman's sentence, the original sentence had been completely served and the imposition of a new sentence was precluded by the double jeopardy provisions of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 10 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. Accordingly, we reverse the Court of Appeals, vacate the new sentence, and remand to the district court to reinstate Lehman's discharge from supervision.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL OVERVIEW

On August 10, 2009, pursuant to a plea agreement, Lehman pled guilty to aggravated sexual battery, a sexually violent offense. At the October 22, 2009 sentencing, the prosecutor announced:

"Your Honor, we are asking the Court to follow the presumption in this case, which is for prison. We're asking the Court to sentence the defendant to 31 months with the Kansas Department of Corrections and order that he serve 24 months of post-release supervision once he completes the sentence in this case."

The district court followed the plea agreement recommendation and sentenced Lehman to 31 months in prison with 24 months' postrelease supervision.

According to the State's brief, approximately three years later, in the fall of 2012, the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) notified the district attorney's office that Lehman's postrelease supervision term was in error. A year later, on October 15, 2013, the State filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence, claiming that the district court's imposition of the State-recommended sentence included an illegal postrelease supervision term. Specifically, the State contended that K.S.A. 22-3717(d)(1)(G) requires a person convicted of committing a sexually violent crime on or after July 1, 2006, to serve a mandatory lifetime of postrelease supervision. According to the State, the district court appointed counsel for Lehman and set the motion for hearing on November 22, 2013, but then continued the hearing to December 11, 2013.

Ultimately, the motion was heard on June 6, 2014. But in the meantime, some seven months earlier, on November 14, 2013 (prior to the originally set motion hearing date), KDOC discharged Lehman from postrelease supervision. At the 2014 motion hearing, the district court opined that Lehman's discharge did not deprive the district court of jurisdiction to correct his illegal sentence, but rather the district court had such jurisdiction "for all time." The court ordered Lehman, who was approximately 24 years old at the time, to be on postrelease supervision for the rest of his life.

Lehman filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeals, claiming that there were three reasons that the district court could not order lifetime postrelease supervision after he had completed his entire sentence: (1) the completion of his sentence deprived the district court of jurisdiction to modify the sentence; (2) the resentencing violated double jeopardy rules; and (3) the State cannot complain because it invited the error by recommending the sentence that the district court originally imposed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court, holding that: (1) K.S.A. 22-3504(1) invests the district court with jurisdiction to correct an illegal sentence "at any time," which includes after the sentence has been completely served; (2) double jeopardy does not apply unless the defendant has a legitimate reason to believe that his or her sentence is final and the filing of the State's motion to correct an illegal sentence before Lehman's discharge negated that circumstance for him; and (3) the invited error doctrine is inapplicable to a mistakenly imposed illegal sentence. State v. Lehman, No. 112,500, 2015 WL 7162178, at *3-6 (Kan. App. 2015) (unpublished opinion).

This court granted review on all issues.

AUTHORITY OF DISTRICT COURT TO MODIFY A COMPLETED SENTENCE

The State's motion to correct an illegal sentence was filed pursuant to K.S.A. 22-3504 which reads in its entirety:

"(1) The court may correct an illegal sentence at any time. The defendant shall receive full credit for time spent in custody under the sentence prior to correction. The defendant shall have a right to a hearing, after reasonable notice to be fixed by the court, to be personally present and to have the assistance of counsel in any proceeding for the correction of an illegal sentence.

"(2) Clerical mistakes in judgments, orders or other parts of the record and errors in the record arising from oversight or omission may be corrected by the court at any time and after such notice, if any, as the court orders."

The State contends that Lehman's sentence was illegal because the component of the sentence ordering Lehman to serve 24 months on postrelease supervision did not conform to the applicable statutory provision requiring a person that is convicted of a sexually violent offense to serve a lifetime on postrelease supervision. See State v. Gilbert , 299 Kan. 797, 801, 326 P.3d 1060 (2014) (defining an "illegal sentence" under K.S.A. 22-3504 as: "[1] a sentence imposed by a court without jurisdiction; [2] a sentence that does not conform to the applicable statutory provision, either in character or the term of authorized punishment; or [3] a sentence that is ambiguous with respect to the time and manner in which it is to be served"). Lehman does not dispute that his postrelease supervision term did not conform to statutory provisions. Rather, he argues that the district court did not have jurisdiction to modify his sentence after it was completed; that doing so violated the constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy; and that the invited error doctrine is a procedural bar to the State's motion to correct an illegal sentence.

Invited error

We take the liberty of first considering the argument that the invited error doctrine precludes the State from challenging the legality of Lehman's term of postrelease supervision because the district court imposed the exact sentence requested by the State. If that alleged procedural bar were to apply here, we could quickly resolve the case.

The doctrine of invited error precludes a party from requesting a court to rule in a particular manner and then subsequently claiming that the court's ruling granting the party's request was erroneous. See, e.g., State v. Soto , 301 Kan. 969, 983, 349 P.3d 1256 (2015). In other words, if a party gets what that party asks for, the party cannot be heard to complain later. Here, the State specifically requested that the district court order Lehman to serve 24 months of postrelease supervision, which arguably misled the district court into pronouncing a sentence contrary to statutory requirements.

But we do not allow the parties to agree upon or stipulate to an illegal sentence. Cf. State v. Hankins , 304 Kan. 226, 231, 372 P.3d 1124 (2016) (defense stipulation not procedural bar to illegal sentence challenge); State v. Dickey , 301 Kan. 1018, 1032-34, 350 P.3d 1054 (2015) (stipulation as to how prior convictions are to be classified for criminal history purposes does not prevent subsequent illegal sentence challenge under K.S.A. 22-3504 [1] ). A corollary to the proposition that a party is not bound by his or her stipulation to an illegal sentence is that a party cannot be bound by a requested illegal sentence through the invited error doctrine. An illegal sentence may be corrected regardless of whether one or more parties may have had a hand in arriving at the illegality. Consequently, the invited error doctrine does not preclude the State's motion to correct an illegal sentence.

Lehman also suggests that "basic contract principles" should operate to bind the State to its plea agreement to recommend 24 months' postrelease supervision. But basic contract principles do not help Lehman. Generally, if a governmental agency enters into a contract that it has no power to make, the contract is ultra vires and unenforceable. See, e.g., Red Dog Saloon v. Board of Sedgwick County Comm'rs , 29 Kan. App. 2d 928, 930, 33 P.3d 869 (2001). Further, contractual agreements that conflict with statutory provisions are considered void. See, e.g., Pfeifer v. Federal Express Corporation , 297 Kan. 547, Syl. ¶ 5, 304 P.3d 1226 (2013) ; Melton v. Prickett , 203 Kan. 501, 510, 456 P.2d 34 (1969). In short, the plea agreement does not prevent the State's motion.

Double Jeopardy

The Fifth Amendment mandates that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." U.S. Const. amend. V. Section 10 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights states: "No person shall ... be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense." The guarantee against double jeopardy consists of three independent protections: "It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense." North Carolina v. Pearce , 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) ; see also State v. Freeman , 236 Kan. 274, 280-81, 689 P.2d 885 (1984) (same test under Kansas Constitution as under United States Constitution).

As the Court of Appeals noted, the United States Supreme Court has held that, when...