State v. Wagenius
| Decision Date | 28 June 1978 |
| Docket Number | 12070,Nos. 11988,s. 11988 |
| Citation | 581 P.2d 319,99 Idaho 273 |
| Parties | The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Janella WAGENIUS, Defendant-Appellant. The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Craig S. DeVOE, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Michael J. Verbillis, Coeur d'Alene, for appellant Janella Wagenius.
Jay Sudweeks, of the Idaho Trial Lawyers Ass'n, Twin Falls, amicus curiae.
Wayne L. Kidwell, Atty. Gen., Lynn E. Thomas, Deputy Atty. Gen., Boise, for respondent.
Gary E. Lofland, Boise, for appellant Craig S. Devoe.
Jay Sudweeks, of Idaho Trial Lawyers Ass'n, Twin Falls, amicus curiae.
In this opinion we release our decision in two different appeals: No. 11988, State v. Wagenius ; and No. 12070, State v. DeVoe. These appeals were consolidated because they present similar questions concerning withheld judgments in criminal proceedings.
In State v. Wagenius, No. 11988, the defendant appellant Janella Wagenius was originally charged with drawing a check over $25.00 with insufficient funds, a felony. She pleaded not guilty. After the district court set the case for trial, the information was amended to charge Wagenius with a misdemeanor check charge. Wagenius pleaded guilty to the amended information. Following a sentencing hearing, the district judge ordered that judgment and sentence be withheld for a period of two years upon the condition that the defendant be incarcerated in the Kootenai County jail for a period of thirty days and that she not violate any law during that two year period. Wagenius appealed to this Court from the imposition of that sentence. The state has moved to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the district court's order withholding judgment is not an appealable order because it was not a "final judgment."
In State v. DeVoe, No. 12070, the defendant appellant Craig DeVoe was charged with fraudulent procurement of food. He was tried by a magistrate sitting without a jury. Following the presentation of evidence, the magistrate found that DeVoe was guilty of the offense charged, but withheld judgment and ordered DeVoe to pay a $75.00 fine and $7.50 court costs and serve two days in jail. The magistrate suspended $25.00 of the fine and one day of the jail sentence on the condition that DeVoe make restitution of $13.18. DeVoe appealed the magistrate's order to the district court. The district court affirmed the magistrate's order and DeVoe appealed to this Court. The issue concerning the appealability of the magistrate's order in No. 12070 was raised for the first time by this Court Sua sponte at oral argument.
The initial question presented is whether a defendant who has either pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of committing a crime may appeal as a matter of right from an order withholding judgment but nevertheless imposing criminal sanctions. At the time the appeals were taken, I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) set forth the district court orders from which a defendant in a criminal action may appeal to this Court as a matter of right. It provided:
1
These are the same orders from which a defendant before the magistrates division of the district court may appeal to the district court. I.C. § 1-2213; Criminal Appellate Rule 3. The language in Criminal Appellate Rule 3, listing orders appealable from the magistrates division to the district court is identical to the language in I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) listing the orders appealable from the district court to this Court. Therefore, we hold that their meanings are identical and that our construction of the term "final judgment of conviction" found in I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977) is also applicable to that same term in Criminal Appellate Rule 3.
The state has argued that the district court order that Wagenius serve thirty days in the county jail as a condition of withheld judgment is note a "final judgment" under I.C. § 19-2803 (repealed 1977), and therefore not an appealable order. We disagree. An order withholding judgment, but imposing the criminal sanctions of payment of costs or a fine or incarceration, is a De facto judgment of conviction and thus an appealable order under the statute. 2 From the standpoint of the defendant, the payment of costs or a fine or the service of a jail or prison term pursuant to an order withholding judgment is punishment indistinguishable from the payment of costs or fine or the service of a jail or prison term pursuant to a judgment of conviction. To hold that the former order is not appealable because it was given in a document captioned "withheld judgment" while the latter order is appealable because it was given in a document captioned "judgment of conviction" would elevate form over substance and would in effect authorize the lower courts to impose punishment based on a finding of guilt which could not be reviewed by appeal. Applying a more reasonable interpretation of the statute, we look at the practical effect of the orders and construe such orders imposing the payment of costs and a fine or incarceration to be final judgments of conviction, regardless of language in the order which states that no judgment has been rendered. Korematsu v. United States, 319 U.S. 432, 63 S.Ct. 1124, 87 L.Ed. 1497 (1943). Cf. Franklin v. State, 87 Idaho 291, 392 P.2d 552 (1964); State v. McNichols, 62 Idaho 616, 115 P.2d 104 (1941). Therefore, the order issued in No. 11988 withholding judgment but sentencing Wagenius to a jail term, and the order issued in No. 12070 withholding judgment but ordering DeVoe to pay costs and a fine and to serve a jail term, were both final judgments of conviction for purposes of appeal.
The orders involved in these two cases were not judgments of conviction, but by their express terms were orders withholding judgment and promising the eventual dismissal of the case on the condition that the defendant comply with the terms of the orders. The order involved in No. 12070, State v. DeVoe, must be set aside, as we rule in Part II of this opinion, because the conviction upon which the order was based cannot be sustained. Nevertheless, No. 11988, State v. Wagenius, presents the issue whether the trial courts may impose penal sanctions as conditions of such withheld judgments. Our inquiry commences with I.C. § 19-101 which provides:
This statute was first enacted by the Idaho Territorial Legislature as part of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864. 1864 Idaho Sess.Laws, ch. 2, § 5, at 234. In that act the legislature first set forth the fundamental principles of criminal procedure in this state. I.C. § 18-109, also first enacted as part of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864, 1864 Idaho Sess.Laws, ch. 2, § 1, at 234, indicates the sanctions the legislature considered to be criminal punishment and which could not properly be imposed "except upon a legal conviction":
Reading § 19-101 together with its companion, § 18-109, it is apparent that the legislature intended that neither death, imprisonment, fine nor removal or disqualification from office be imposed as punishment for a crime without there first being "a legal conviction" of that crime. We must decide whether I.C. § 19-101 prohibits the courts from imposing the criminal sanctions listed in I.C. § 18-109 when a court has not entered a judgment of conviction, but has withheld it pursuant to I.C. § 19-2601.
The word "conviction" is susceptible to two meanings an ordinary or popular meaning which refers to the finding of guilt by plea or verdict, and a more technical meaning which refers to the final judgment entered on a plea or verdict of guilty. Vasquez v. Courtney, 272 Or. 477, 537 P.2d 536 (1975); State v. Hanna, 179 N.W.2d 503 (Iowa 1970). In the latter case conviction has not occurred until the judgment is entered by the court. In State v. O'Dell, 71 Idaho 64, 225 P.2d 1020 (1950), we stated:
" 'Convicted' as ordinarily used in legal phraseology as indicating a particular phase of a criminal prosecution, includes the establishing of guilt whether by accused's admission in open court by plea of guilty to the charges presented, or by a verdict or finding of a court or jury.
The definition to be applied is not always uniform, but varies with the particular law or statute under consideration. Summerour v. Cartrett, 220 Ga. 31, 136 S.E.2d 724 (1964).
Our prior decisions have not been totally consistent and, for that matter, neither has the legislation upon which they were based. In Ex parte Medley, 73 Idaho 474, 253 P.2d 794 (1953), we stated:
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