Clark D. Frazier v. State of Tennessee

495 S.W.3d 246, 2016 Tenn. LEXIS 406
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 7, 2016
DocketM2014-02374-SC-R11-ECN
StatusPublished
Cited by121 cases

This text of 495 S.W.3d 246 (Clark D. Frazier v. State of Tennessee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark D. Frazier v. State of Tennessee, 495 S.W.3d 246, 2016 Tenn. LEXIS 406 (Tenn. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION

JEFFREY S. BIVINS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which CORNELIA A. CLARK and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. SHARON G. LEE, C.J., filed a - dissenting opinion.

We granted permission to appeal in this case to determine whether a criminal defendant who pleads guilty may later seek to overturn his plea via a petition for writ of error coram nobis filed pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-26-105. Although this Court held in Wlodarz v. State, 361 S.W.3d 490 (Tenn.2012), that guilty pleas may be subject to a collateral attack via a petition for writ of error co-ram nobis, we now overturn that decision. We hold that the statute setting forth the remedy of error coram nobis’in criminal matters' does not encompass its application to guilty pleas. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals on the separate grounds stated herein.

Factual and Procedural History

This matter began in 2004 when Clark Derrick Frazier, the Petitioner, stabbed to death Rosario Salas Angel. The Petitioner was charged with first degree murder. In March 2007, the Petitioner pled guilty to ■ second degree murder and was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. The Petitioner .filed -a petition, for post-conviction relief, which was denied. See Frazier v. State, No. M2008-01303-CCA-R3-PC, 2009 WL 1272278, at *1 (Tenn.Crim.App. May 5, 2009), perm, appeal denied (Tenn. Aug. 31, 2009).

On June 15, 2011, the Petitioner filed the instant petition for writ of error coram nobis claiming that he is entitled to a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied relief. ■ On direct appeal, the Court* of Criminal Appeals affirmed. See. Frazier v. State, No. M2014-02374-[248]*248CCA-R3-ECN, 2015 WL 4040383, at *5 (Tenn.Crim.App. July 1, 2015), perm. app. granted (Tenn. Oct. 15,2015). We granted the Petitioner’s application for permission to appeal in order to revisit the issue of whether a criminal defendant who pleads guilty may later attack that plea by seeking error coram nobis relief under Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-26-105.

Analysis

Initially, we note that neither the United States Constitution, nor the Tennessee Constitution provides a criminal defendant with a constitutional right to error coram nobis relief. See United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 506, 74 S.Ct. 247, 98 L.Ed. 248 (1954) (recognizing that a federal court’s power to grant coram nobis relief arises from the “all-writs section of the Judicial Code” and making no reference to the federal constitution); State v. Mixon, 983 S.W.2d 661, 666-68 (Tenn.1999) (tracing the historical common-law and statutory origins of error coram nobis and its availability in Tennessee). Rather, in Tennessee, the availability of error coram no-bis relief is governed solely by statute.

Our statute setting forth the parameters for seeking a writ of error coram nobis in 'criminal matters provides as follows:

The relief obtainable by this proceeding shall be confined to errors dehors the record and to matters that were not or could not have been litigated on the trial of the case, on a motion for a new trial, on appeal in the nature of a writ of error, on writ of error, or in a habeas corpus proceeding. Upon a showing by the defendant that the defendant was without fault in failing to present certain evidence at the proper time, a writ of error coram nobis will lie for subsequently or newly discovered evidence relating to matters which were litigated at the trial if the judge determines that such evidence may have resulted in a different judgment, had it been presented at the trial.

Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-26-105(b) (2012) (emphases added) (“the coram nobis statute”). The decision to grant or deny a petition for writ of error coram nobis on the merits rests within the trial court’s sound discretion. Harris v. State, 301 S.W.3d 141, 144 (Tenn.2010) (citing State v. Vasques, 221 S.W.3d 514, 527-28 (Tenn.2007)).

In 2012, in a three-to-two decision, this Court concluded that the coram nobis statute could be utilized by a criminal defendant who had pled guilty! Wlodarz v. State, 361 S.W.3d 490, 503-04 (Tenn.2012). Justice Koch, joined by Justice Clark, disagreed with this holding. Id. at 507 (Koch, J., concurring in result). We accepted this appeal to reexamine the availability of the error coram nobis statute as a procedural mechanism to collaterally attack a guilty plea. We now overturn the majority’s decision in Wlodarz and hold that a guilty plea may not be collaterally attacked pursuant to the coram nobis statute.

We determine the availability of the error coram nobis statute to attack guilty pleas by the usual rules of statutory construction. The role of this Court in statutory interpretation is to assign a statute the full effect of the legislative intent without restricting or expanding its intended scope. State v. Springer, 406 S.W.3d 526, 533 (Tenn.2013); State v. Marshall, 319 S.W.3d 558, 561 (Tenn.2010). In doing so, we1 first look to the plain language of the statute to determine the legislature’s intent. State v. Jennings, 130 S.W.3d 43, 46 (Tenn.2004). We are • constrained to give the statute’s words their natural and ordinary meaning. Lee Med., Inc. v. Beecher, 312 S.W.3d 515, 526 (Tenn.2010). [249]*249When those words are clear and unambiguous, we need not consider other sources of information but must simply enforce the statute as written. See Shelby Cnty. Health Care Corp. v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 325 S.W.3d 88, 92 (Tenn.2010); U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Tennessee Farmers Mut. Ins. Co., 277 S.W.3d 381, 386 (Tenn.2009); Gleaves v. Checker Cab Transit Corp., 15 S.W.3d 799, 803 (Tenn.2000). It is not the role of this Court to- substitute its own policy judgments for those of the legislature. Gleaves, 15 S.W.3d at 803; BellSouth Telecomms., Inc. v. Greer, 972 S.W.2d 663; 673 (Tenn.Ct.App.1997).

We begin our analysis by emphasizing that the coram nobis statute makes repeated references to the words “evidence,” “litigated,” and “trial.” Significantly, the coram nobis statute makes no reference to the word “plea.”

In Wlodarz,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
495 S.W.3d 246, 2016 Tenn. LEXIS 406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-d-frazier-v-state-of-tennessee-tenn-2016.