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FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE # 58 FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA The Opinions handed down on the 6th day of July, 2004, are as follows: BY KNOLL, J.: 2003-K -2788 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. QUINCY BROWN (Parish of Orleans) (Armed Robbery) The judgment of the appellate court is affirmed for the reasons expressed herein. We reverse the sentence as unconstitutional, as it violates the defendant's due process rights. The case is remanded to the trial court for re-sentencing consistent with the views expressed in this opinion. AFFIRMED. VICTORY, J., dissents for reasons assigned by Justice Traylor. TRAYLOR, J., dissents and assigns reasons.

07/06/04

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NO. 03-K-2788 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS QUINCY BROWN ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL FOURTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ORLEANS KNOLL, Justice This criminal case concerns the enhancement of a sentence under Louisiana's Habitual Offender Law; specifically, whether it is constitutionally permissible to use a juvenile adjudication, in which the juvenile had not been afforded the right to a trial by jury, to enhance his sentence for a felony committed when he is an adult. This issue raises the question of whether enhancing the sentence of the defendant on the basis of a prior juvenile adjudication is contrary to Apprendi v. New Jersey.1 In the present case, when defendant became an adult he committed an armed robbery for which he was convicted by a jury. The sentencing court found defendant a second felony offender as a result of his prior juvenile delinquency adjudication (attempted second-degree murder), and sentenced defendant to 198 years at hard labor without benefit of parole. The court of appeal affirmed his conviction, but reversed his sentence as constitutionally excessive and remanded the case to the trial court for re-sentencing. The court of appeal held the prior juvenile adjudication without the right to a jury trial was constitutionally inadequate under the Apprendi exception for purposes of subsequent sentence enhancement. We granted the State's application for a writ of certiorari2 to consider this weighty issue of whether the use of juvenile
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530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). State v. Brown, 03-2788 (La. 2/6/04), 866 So.2d 805.

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adjudications to enhance a statutory penalty, where the defendant did not have the right to a jury trial, is constitutionally permissible. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The facts underlying defendant's charged and prior offenses are not relevant to the issue presented by this writ application, but for the sake of completeness we will briefly summarize the history of the case. After defendant, Quincy Brown, became an adult, he allegedly committed several felony crimes. He was charged by bill of information with two counts of attempted first-degree murder (La. Rev. Stat. 14:27(30))3, one count of armed robbery (La. Rev. Stat. 14:64) and one count of simple robbery (La. Rev. Stat. 14:65). He pleaded guilty to the simple robbery count and proceeded to trial on the armed robbery charge and the remaining charge of attempted first-degree murder. The jury acquitted defendant of attempted first-degree murder and convicted him of armed robbery. The trial court sentenced him to serve 99 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for the armed robbery and to seven years at hard labor with benefits for the simple robbery. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently with credit for time served. The State then charged defendant as an habitual offender pursuant to La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1, based on a juvenile adjudication.4 Defense counsel filed a motion to exclude evidence of the prior adjudication, arguing the use of defendant's juvenile adjudication for purposes of enhancing his sentence under La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1 is unconstitutional. The defendant urged the use of the adjudication to enhance the sentence violated Apprendi, because in the juvenile proceeding defendant did not have the right to a jury trial. The trial court rejected the motion and found defendant a second felony offender and sentenced him to 198 years at hard labor without benefit
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The State later entered a nolle prosequi to one of the attempted murder counts. Previously the defendant was adjudicated a delinquent for attempted second-degree murder. 2

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of parole for the armed robbery conviction and a concurrent term of 14 years for the simple robbery. Defendant appealed his sentence as excessive and unconstitutional. A unanimous panel of the appellate court affirmed the conviction, but reversed the sentence as constitutionally excessive. The court of appeal found the trial court erred in enhancing the defendant's sentence on the basis of the prior juvenile conviction. It noted the split in the federal courts of appeal on the issue of whether prior juvenile adjudications, in which the juvenile did not have the right to a jury trial, are constitutionally inadequate under the Apprendi exception for purposes of subsequent sentence enhancement. It concluded, based in part on limited guidance from this Court in State in the Interest of D.J.,5 that juvenile adjudications without a right to a jury trial are constitutionally inadequate for purposes of subsequent sentence enhancement. State v. Brown, 02-1217, p.12 (La. Ct. App. 4 Cir. 5/28/03), 853 So.2d 8, 15. DISCUSSION Louisiana's Habitual Offender Law is codified at La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1. In this matter before us, the pertinent language of the statute provides: A. (1) Any person who, after having been convicted within this state of a felony or adjudicated a delinquent under Title VIII of the Louisiana's
01-2149 (La. 5/14/02), 817 So.2d 26. The appellate court found a footnote in State in the Interest of D.J., strongly hinted the difference in adjudication procedures might require the exclusion of such adjudications from later enhancement proceedings. Brown, p. 11, 853 So.2d at 15. Addressing the fact that before the amendment to the Habitual Offender Law allowing adjudications to enhance subsequent felony offenses, juvenile adjudications were sealed and did not follow an individual into adulthood, we noted: In United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 433, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972) and Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 88 S.Ct. 258, 19 L.Ed.2d 319 (1967), the Supreme Court prohibited the use of prior convictions that were entered without the advice of counsel to enhance later sentences. In a related vein, some commentators suggest that the practice of using juvenile convictions obtained without the option to be tried by a jury to enhance adult sentences renders the juvenile justice system unconstitutional. See e.g., Sara E Kropf, Note, Overturning McKeiver v. Pennsylvania: The Unconstitutionality of Using Prior Convictions to Enhance Adult Sentences Under the Sentencing Guidelines, 87 Geo. L.J. 2149 (1999); David Dormont, Note, For the Good of the Adult: An Examination of the Constitutionality of Using Prior Juvenile Adjudications to Enhance Adult Sentences, 75 Minn. L.Rev. 1769, 1793-94 (1991). State in the Interest of D.J., p. 8, 817 So.2d at 39, n.6. 3
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Children's Code for the commission of a felony-grade violation of either the Louisiana Controlled Dangerous Substances Law involving the manufacture, distribution, or possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance or a crime of violence as listed in Paragraph (2)6 of this Subsection, or who, after having been convicted under the laws of any other state or of the United States, or any foreign government of a crime which, if committed in this state would be a felony, thereafter commits any subsequent felony within this state, upon conviction of said felony, shall be punished as follows: (a) If the second felony is such that upon a first conviction the offender would be punishable by imprisonment for any term less than his natural life, then the sentence to imprisonment shall be for a determinate term not less that one-half the longest term and not more than twice the longest term prescribed for a first conviction; (Emphasis added). The italicized language was added in 1994, when the Legislature enacted Act 23 of the Third Extraordinary Session. The digest for that act provided the proposed law would equate an adjudication of delinquency for the commission of a felony-grade violation of either the Louisiana Controlled Dangerous Substances Law or a crime of violence as a conviction for purposes of sentencing as a habitual offender. Before we reach the issue of whether La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1 was unconstitutionally applied in violation of the defendant's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process right, we will first address whether this constitutional issue can be resolved on statutory grounds. We have repeatedly and consistently held that courts should refrain from reaching or determining the constitutionality of legislation unless, in the context of a particular case, the resolution of the constitutional issue is essential to the decision of the case or controversy. Ring v. State, Dep't of Transp. and Dev., 021367, p. 4 (La. 1/14/03), 835 So.2d 423, 426; State v. Fleming, 01-2799, p. 4 (La. 6/21/02), 820 So.2d 467, 470. During oral argument of this case, this court noted that subparagraph (a) of La.

Paragraph 2 lists the following crimes: attempted first-degree murder; attempted seconddegree murder; manslaughter; armed robbery; forcible rape; simple rape; second-degree kidnapping; a second or subsequent aggravated battery; a second or subsequent aggravated burglary; and a second or subsequent offense of burglary of an inhabited dwelling. 4

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Rev. Stat. 15:529.1 A(1) did not refer to juvenile adjudications but only referred to convictions, notwithstanding that paragraph A(1) specifically referred to "adjudicated a delinquent." We requested post-argument briefs to address this discrepancy and specifically, whether this discrepancy would have this case resolved upon statutory grounds rather than constitutional grounds. In post-argument brief, defendant posited because a prior adjudication of delinquency is not a felony, it cannot be used to make the current conviction a second felony under La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1A(1)(a). We find a statutory analysis shows notwithstanding the discrepancy in the language, the adult offense was intended to be treated as a "second felony" where the offender had only a prior juvenile adjudication.

It is a well-established tenet of statutory construction that criminal statutes are subject to strict construction under the rule of lenity. State v. Carr, 99-2209, p. 4 (La. 5/26/00), 761 So.2d 1271, 1274. Thus criminal statutes are given a narrow

interpretation and any ambiguity in the substantive provisions of a statute as written is resolved in favor of the accused and against the State. Id. However, the rule of strict construction of penal statutes is not to be applied with "such unreasonable technicality as to defeat the purpose of all rules of statutory construction, which purpose is to ascertain and enforce the true meaning and intent of the statute." State v. Everett, 00-2998, p. 12 (La. 5/14/02), 816 So.2d 1272, 1279, reh'g denied, 6/21/02, quoting State v. Broussard, 213 La. 338, 342, 34 So.2d 883, 884 (La. 1948). The general rule that ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity applies when the court is uncertain about the statute's meaning and is "not to be used in complete disregard of the purpose of the legislature." Perrin v. United States, 444 U.S. 37, 49, n.13, 100 S.Ct. 311, 317, 62 L.Ed.2d 199 (1979). The principle of strict construction "does not mean that every
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criminal statute must be given the narrowest possible meaning in complete disregard of the purpose of the legislature." United States v. Levy, 579 F.2d 1332, 1337 (5th Cir. 1978), cert denied, 440 U.S. 920, 99 S.Ct. 1243, 59 L.Ed.2d 471 (1979) (quoting United States v. Bramblett, 348 U.S. 503, 510, 75 S.Ct. 504, 508, 99 L.Ed.2d 594 (1955)). A criminal statute, like all other statutes, should be so interpreted as to be in harmony with, preserve, and effectuate the manifest intent of the legislature, and an interpretation should be avoided which would operate to defeat the purpose and object of the statute. Broussard, 34 So.2d at 884. An examination of Act No. 23 clearly reveals the Legislature intended to provide that any person who had been adjudicated a delinquent for certain felonygrade violations was subject to sentence enhancement for a subsequent felony conviction. In order to effectuate this purpose, Act No. 23 did not just amend Louisiana's Habitual Offender Law (La. Rev. Stat. 15:529.1), but also amended Children's Code Article 414(A), Code of Evidence Article 609.1(F) and enacted Children's Code Article 412(A)(6). These revisions and enactments were necessary because the law generally provided that all records concerning proceedings in juvenile court were confidential and not to be disclosed. A reading of the transcript of the meeting of the Senate Committee on Judiciary B, in which House Bill No. 3437 was discussed, further evidences the Legislature's intent to make juvenile adjudications subject to predicate offenses for felony sentence enhancement. Considering the extensive revisions the Legislature made to Louisiana law, which not only included the amendment to the Habitual Offender Law but corresponding changes to the Children's Code and the Code of Evidence, it is evident the Legislature's manifest intent was to provide that any person who had been

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House Bill No. 343 was subsequently enrolled as Act No. 23, 3rd Extraordinary Session, 6

1994.

adjudicated a delinquent for certain felony-grade violations was subject to subsequent sentence enhancement for conviction of a felony. Even though Quincy Brown's conviction for armed robbery is technically not a "second felony" because his juvenile adjudication was not a first "felony," an application of the rule of lenity to this ambiguity would be an unreasonable technicality, which would defeat the purpose and object of the statute. To find that the rule of lenity prohibits sentence enhancement where the defendant was adjudicated a delinquent because the felony is not technically a "second" felony simply stretches the general rule of strict construction too far. The Court has a duty to ascertain the intent of the legislature. Under these tenets, the most logical interpretation is to find the statute provides that the felony is subject to enhanced penalties if the defendant had previously been adjudicated a delinquent. Thus we will address the constitutional issue defendant has raised. The Constitutionality of Non-Jury Juvenile Adjudications as Predicate Offenses A proper discussion of the constitutional issue before us must commence with the United State's Supreme Court's decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, supra. The question before the Supreme Court was whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that a factual determination authorizing an increase in the maximum prison sentence be made by a jury on the basis of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 469, 120 S.Ct. at 2351. The catalyst for this issue was a New Jersey hate crime statute, which authorized a judge to increase a defendant's maximum prison sentence if the trial court found by a preponderance of the evidence that in committing the crime, the defendant acted with a purpose to intimidate an individual or group of individuals because of race, color, gender, handicap, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. Charles Apprendi pleaded guilty to two counts of firearm possession for an unlawful purpose and one count of unlawful possession of an antipersonnel bomb. The trial judge imposed an enhanced
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sentence, finding by a preponderance of the evidence that Apprendi's actions were taken with a purpose to intimidate as provided by the statute. "The question of whether Apprendi had a constitutional right to have a jury find such bias on the basis of proof beyond a reasonable doubt [was] starkly presented." Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476, 120 S.Ct. at 2355. The Court declared the answer was foreshadowed by its opinion in Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999), construing a federal statute. "We there noted that `under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the notice and jury trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment, any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be charged in an indictment, submitted to a jury, and proven beyond a reasonable doubt.'" Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476, 120 S.Ct. at 2355, quoting Jones, 526 U.S. at 243, n. 6, 119 S.Ct. at 1224. The Apprendi court found the Fourteenth Amendment commands the same answer in the case of a state statute. Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 476, 120 S.Ct. at 2355. The Court ruled "other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. at 2362-63. It reasoned due process required a jury to find the facts upon which a court based an enhanced sentence as an "element" of the offense at trial, rather than to allow a judge to find those facts by a preponderance of the evidence as a "sentencing factor" at a sentencing hearing. Barry C. Feld, The Constitutional Tension Between Apprendi and McKeiver: Sentence Enhancements Based on Delinquency Convictions and the Quality of Justice in Juvenile Courts, 38 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 1111, 1112 (2003). The Court exempted the fact of a prior conviction from its holding because defendants enjoyed criminal procedural safeguards, including the right to a jury trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
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which assured the accuracy and reliability of the prior record. Id. After Apprendi's holding that "other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt," courts around the nation have been confronted with the question of whether a juvenile adjudication falls within the Apprendi exception for "prior convictions." The federal appellate courts have divided over the use of delinquency adjudications to enhance criminal sentences beyond the statutorily mandated maximum. The question that has divided the federal circuits is whether a prior juvenile adjudication, in which the juvenile does not have the right to a jury trial, qualifies as a "prior conviction" for purposes of the Apprendi exception. In each of these federal cases, the court reviewed the legality of using juvenile adjudications to enhance an adult sentence above a prescribed statutory maximum pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C.

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