Bramlett v. Hobbs

2015 Ark. 146, 463 S.W.3d 283
Supreme Court of Arkansas·Decided April 9, 2015·No. No. CV-12-330·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

KAREN R. BAKER, Associate Justice

| ,On October 30, 1979, Appellant, Steven Wayne Bramlett, entered a negotiated plea of guilty to attempted capital murder and was sentenced to life in the Arkansas Department of Correction. The record demonstrates that Bramlett was seventeen years old when he committed this offense.

On October 26, 2011, pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 16-111-101 (Repl.2010), Bramlett filed a pro se complaint for declaratory relief alleging that the parole-eligibility statute, codified at the time of the offense at Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2829 1 was unconstitutional 12as applied to Bram-lett. Relying on Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010), Bramlett requested the circuit court find that his life sentence for criminal attempt to commit capital murder violates the Eighth Amendment and is unconstitutional as applied to him and remand his case to the circuit court for resentenc-ing to a term of years. On December 7, 2011, Appellee, Ray Hobbs, as Director of the Arkansas Department of Correction (the State), responded with its motion to dismiss for failure to state facts for which relief can be granted, and also responded that the State was entitled to summary judgment pursuant to Ark. R. Civ. P. 56. On December 20, 2011, Bramlett responded to the State’s motion to dismiss and on January 6, 2012, the State replied. On January 17, 2012, Bramlett responded to the State’s reply and on January 20, 2012, the State filed a reply.

On March 16, 2012, the circuit court denied Bramlett’s complaint for declaratory relief and granted the State’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed Bram-lett’s action. On March 26, 2012, Bramlett filed his notice of appeal. On May 16, 2012, Bramlett filed his brief, the State timely responded, and Bramlett timely replied. On January 29, 2015, we issued |3a per curiam opinion and ordered Bramlett to supplement his addendum. Bramlett v. Hobbs, 2015 Ark. 32, 2015 WL 393862 (per curiam). We were unable to reach the merits of Bramlett’s appeal because pleadings relied upon by the circuit court and the parties were omitted from Bramlett’s addendum. On February 11, 2015, Bramlett supplemented his addendum and the matter is now properly before the court.

On appeal, Bramlett presents one issue: the circuit court erred by granting the State’s motion for summary judgment holding that his life sentence for attempted capital murder does not violate the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Graham does not entitle Bramlett to relief.

The issue presented in this appeal stems from the circuit court’s order granting the State’s motion for summary judgment. The circuit court’s March 16, 2012 order states in pertinent part:

In Graham the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a juvenile offender from being sentenced to life without a possibility of parole for a nonhomicide offenc[sie][s]e. Graham at 2017-18.
Mr. Bramlett asks the Court to classify attempted capital murder as a nonho-micide offense. The parties did not cite nor has the Court found either a United States Supreme Court case or Arkansas case that has provided a list of crimes that fit into the category of a nonhomi-cide offense. A review of other States’ cases reveals division.
Justice Kennedy explains that there are two types of Constitutional analyses. The first type is when a Court considers all of the circumstances of the case in determining whether a sentence for a term of years is grossly disproportionate for a particular defendant’s crime rendering it unconstitutionally excessive. The other is a categorical approach which was the one applied in the Graham case. In Graham the Court looked at a particular type of sentence (life without parole) as it applied to an entire class of offenders who had committed a range of crimes. Graham at 2022-23.
^Referencing Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407, 128 S.Ct. 2641, 171 L.Ed.2d 525 (2008); Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3868, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982); Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987); and Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1982); Justice Kennedy wrote, “The Court has recognized that defendants who do not kill, intend to kill, or foresee that life will be taken are categorically less deserving of the most serious forms of punishment than are murderers.” Thus the Court has indicated, by implication, that one who kills, intends to kill or foresees that life will be taken may deserve the most serious punishment. This Court notes that in the analysis in Graham, culpability and punishment should correlate. There is a slim line of distinction between defendants who intend to kill and succeed and those who intend to kill but do not succeed.
Should a person who intends to kill, acts upon that intention but is a poor shot be held less culpable than one who intends to kill, acts upon that intention but is a good shot? Although Bramlett’s victim survived, he admitted that he intended to kill her when he shot her multiple times. But for his poor aim, she would be dead.
Following the reasoning in the Graham case, the crime of criminal attempt to commit capital murder falls within the category of a homicide offense, because it is an attempt to kill with one possible or probable foreseeable result the taking of a life.

The motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED and the case is DISMISSED.

In Lipsey v. Giles, 2014 Ark. 309, at 5-6, 439 S.W.3d 13,17, we explained that “summary judgment is appropriate when there are no genuine issues of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Moreover, ... even when there is no material dispute as to the facts, the court will determine whether ‘reasonable minds’ could draw ‘reasonable’ inconsistent hypotheses to render summary judgment inappropriate. In other words, when the facts are not at issue but possible inferences therefrom are, the court will consider whether those inferences can be reasonably drawn from the undisputed facts and whether reasonable minds might differ on those hypotheses. Id. If so, summary judgment is not appropriate.” Id. (internal citations omitted). Bramlett asserts that the circuit court erred, homicide under Graham does not include attempted capital murder, and he is entitled to relief launder Graham. Bramlett contends that pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 16-93-604, Bramlett has been denied “meaningful opportunity to obtain release mandated by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Graham.” Bramlett further contends that the circuit court has misapplied dicta in Graham to reach the result that attempted capital murder is a homicide offense. Finally, Bramlett asserts that a homicide, by law and definition, must include a death.

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Bramlett v. Hobbs, 2015 Ark. 146, 463 S.W.3d 283 (Ark. 2015).

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