Turner v. Bayly

• Decision Date: 05 March 1996
• Citation: 673 A.2d 596
• Parties: Clarence R. TURNER (No. 95-SP-326), Walter English (No. 95-SP-1165), Joel Anthony Edwards (No. 95-SP-1170), and Michael Hawkins (No. 95-SP-1273), Petitioners, v. Honorable John H. BAYLY, Jr., Respondent.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

673 A.2d 596

Clarence R. TURNER (No. 95-SP-326), Walter English (No. 95-SP-1165), Joel Anthony Edwards (No. 95-SP-1170), and Michael Hawkins (No. 95-SP-1273), Petitioners, v. Honorable John H. BAYLY, Jr., Respondent.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued January 17, 1996.

Decided March 5, 1996.

Christopher Warnock, Washington, DC, with whom Donna Maul (Turner), Kathleen Sutherland (Turner), Colin Dunham (Turner), Willie N. Hewett (Edwards), and Linda Stroufe (Hawkins), were on the indicated petitions, for petitioners Turner, Edwards, and Hawkins.

David Reiser, Washington, DC, with whom James Klein and Tanya Chutkan, Public Defender Service, were on the petition, for petitioner English.

Jonathan Gleklen, Washington, DC, with whom Whitney Debevoise was on the opposition, for respondent.

Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, and John R. Fisher and Matthew G. Olson, Assistant United States Attorneys, filed a Response of the United States to the Petitions for Writs of Mandamus.

Before FERREN, TERRY, and SCHWELB, Associate Judges.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

Petitioners seek mandamus relief from denial of their respective demands for a jury trial. D.C.Code § 16-705(b) (Repl.1989 & 1995 Supp.) confers the right to a jury trial for all offenses (except contempt of court) carrying maximum prison terms of "more than 180 days." We hold that because petitioners are charged with crimes that carry maximum prison terms of "six months" — which in all cases will amount to 181 to 184 days — they are entitled to trials by jury, and thus to the relief they seek.

I.

Each petitioner has been charged with one count of an offense punishable at most by six months in prison. Turner is charged with unlawful entry, D.C.Code § 22-3102 (Repl. 1989); Edwards, Hawkins, and English are charged with threats, id. § 22-507. Violation of the unlawful entry statute is publishable "by a fine not exceeding $100 or imprisonment in the Jail for not more than six months, or both, in the discretion of the court." Id. § 22-3102. An individual convicted of threats "shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, in addition thereto or in lieu thereof, may be required to give bond to keep the peace for a period not exceeding 1 year." Id. § 22-507.

In 1992, the Council of the District of Columbia acted to amend the jury trial statute, D.C.Code § 16-705(b), when it enacted the Judicial Resources Conservation title of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Reform Amendment Act of 1992, D.C.Law 9-272, 40 D.C.Reg. 796 (effective May 15, 1993) (hereafter "1992 amendment"). Before that amendment, defendants charged with criminal offenses (except contempt of court) punishable by a fine of $300 or imprisonment for more than 90 days were entitled to jury trials. See D.C.Code § 16-705(b) (1989 Repl.). By increasing the number of days in prison required before a defendant is entitled to trial by jury, the 1992 amendment reduced that statutory right to cases involving an offense punishable by a fine of more than $1,000 or "by imprisonment for more than 180 days." 1992 Amendment Act § 202, 40 D.C.Reg. at 799. As amended, therefore, § 16-705(b) now provides in relevant part:

(b) In any case where the defendant is not under the Constitution of the United States entitled to a trial by jury, the trial shall be by a single judge without a jury, except that if —

(1) the case involves an offense which is punishable by a fine or penalty of more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for more than 180 days (or for more than six months in the case of the offense of contempt of court). . . .

D.C.Code § 16-705(b) (1989 Repl. & 1995 Supp.). Because the threats and unlawful entry statutes provide for maximum sentences of "six months" in prison, compared to the "180 days" maximum allowed in § 16-705(b) for denial of the right to a jury, petitioners ask this court to issue writs of mandamus directing Judge Bayly to empanel a jury for trial in each of their cases.¹

II.

Judge Bayly denied each petitioner's jury demand on the ground that the statutory provision denying a jury trial when the maximum prison term does not exceed "180 days" is intended to withhold a jury when imprisonment does not exceed "six months" or "6 months," the terms used in the penalty provisions of the criminal statutes at issue here.

A.

Contesting the Judge's interpretation, petitioners submit that the plain language of § 16-705(b), as amended ("180 days"), when compared to the plain language of the unlawful entry and threats statutes ("six months"), evidences their statutory right to a jury trial simply because six months is always more than 180 days.² Petitioners note that the number of days in any consecutive six calendar month period varies from 181 to 184 days. They find support for interpreting "month" as a calendar month in Guaranty Trust & S.D. Co. v. Green Cove Springs & M.R. Co., 139 U.S. 137, 145, 11 S.Ct. 512, 515, 35 L.Ed. 116 (1890), where the Supreme Court said that "the word `month,' when used in contracts or statutes, must be construed, where the parties have not themselves given to it a definition, and there is no legislative provision on the subject, to mean calendar and not lunar months."³

Petitioners buttress their argument by pointing to the fact that the Council, by distinguishing between "180 days" and "six months" in the very text of § 16-705(b) itself, clearly intended the terms to have different meanings. Under the amended statute, a contempt of court charge is jury-demandable when it carries a penalty of "more than six months" of imprisonment, while all other offenses justify a jury trial when they carry prison sentences of "more than 180 days." According to petitioners, therefore, under the plain language of the statute, persons charged with crimes punishable by up to six months of imprisonment are entitled to a jury trial, since "six months," by definition, is "more than 180 days." See Peoples Drug Stores v. District of Columbia, 470 A.2d 751, 753 (D.C.1983) (en banc) ("primary and general rule of statutory construction is that the intent of the lawmaker is to be found in the language that he or she has used").

B.

Judge Bayly sees the matter differently. Referring to legislative history, he concludes that the Council, by amending § 16-705(b), intended to eliminate the statutory right to a jury trial in all cases where the Constitution does not require one: generally, when imprisonment will not exceed six months. See Blanton v. City of North Las Vegas, 489 U.S. 538, 543, 109 S.Ct. 1289, 1293, 103 L.Ed.2d 550 (1989) (establishing presumption that offenses carrying maximum prison term of six months or less are petty and not jury-demandable). He notes that the original draft of the amendment to § 16-705(b) provided for jury trials in cases involving potential punishment of "$1,000 or by imprisonment for more than six months." COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, CRIMINAL AND JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM AMENDMENT ACT OF 1992, BILL 9-374, at 8 (Comm.Print November 5, 1992). He then points out that this proposed language was amended to read "$1,000 or by imprisonment for more than 180 days" — a change the judge believes reinforces, rather than negates, his view that for purposes of applying § 16-705(b), as amended, "180 days" and "six months" are synonymous.

According to Judge Bayly, the Council intended only to clarify, not to alter, the meaning of "six months" when it amended the language of the proposed amendment to § 16-705(b) to read "180 days." After Councilmember Brazil had moved to substitute "180 days" for the term "six months," Judiciary Committee Chair Rolark commented:

Mr. Brazil has introduced one amendment, which is before us, which would clarify the phrase "6 months" to read instead "180 days," so that we would know exactly the date and period after which the defendant can constitutionally demand a jury trial. Right now, the six months would make it a little too indeterminate.

Hearings Before the Council of the District of Columbia, (December 1, 1992) (statement of Chairperson Rolark). Judge Bayly accordingly argues that Councilmember Brazil's "180-day" clarification of the term "six months" was not intended to have substantive significance. If, contrary to Judge Bayly's interpretation, we were to conclude that the word "month," when used in criminal statutes, does not mean 30 days, then he asks us to conclude that the attempted clarification should be characterized (in the words of his opposition to the mandamus petitions) as "a mere `scrivener's error,' a drafting mistake inconsistent with the legislature's clear intent to eliminate jury trials not required by the Constitution." See United States Nat'l Bank of Oregon v. Independent Ins. Agents of Am., Inc., 508 U.S. 439, 461-63, 113 S.Ct. 2173, 2186, 124 L.Ed.2d 402 (1993).

Reinforcing his argument, the judge suggests that the Council cannot have had in mind any difference between the "180 days" used in the amendment as finally adopted, and the preexisting language of § 16-705(b) that limits jury trials in contempt cases to offenses punishable by "more than six months." He stresses that Congress originally had drafted § 16-705(b), including the parenthetical clause carving out the six month exception for contempt cases,⁴ whereas a different legislature, the Council had amended § 16-705(b) to insert the 180 day provision.⁵ As originally proposed, therefore, the Council's amendment would have resulted in the following revision of § 16-705(b), providing for jury trials when:

the case involves an offense which is punishable by a fine or penalty of more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for more than six months (or for more than six months in the case of the offense of contempt of court). . . .

From this awkward, redundant proposal Judge Bayly infers that the Council never looked at the entire provision; otherwise, the legislators initially would have cleaned up the language....