Edwards v. State

1979 OK CR 18, 591 P.2d 313, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 192
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 14, 1979
DocketPC-77-475
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 1979 OK CR 18 (Edwards v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. State, 1979 OK CR 18, 591 P.2d 313, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 192 (Okla. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

OPINION

CORNISH, Presiding Judge:

The appellant, Bruce Wayne Edwards, was convicted on pleas of guilty in the District Court, Oklahoma County, in Case No. CRF — 71-2890 and in Case No. CRF-72-500, for the offenses of Grand Larceny and Larceny From a Person. He was subsequently convicted in the District Court, Oklahoma County, in Case No. CRF-74-1220, for the offense of Attempted Robbery With Firearms, After Former Conviction of a Felony. Although he was sixteen and seventeen years of age, respectively, at the time the larcenies were committed, he was not given certification hearings. He now [316]*316contends in his post-conviction proceeding that his prior convictions should be vacated because he was denied equal protection of the law, and that the judgment and sentence rendered in Case No. CRF-74-1220 should be reversed or modified for the reason that the convictions in Case No. CRF-71-2890 and Case No. CRF-72-500 were void. His applications for post-conviction relief in the District Court, Oklahoma County, premised on this challenge, have been denied by the judges of the District Court in reliance on Dean v. Crisp, 536 P.2d 961 (Okl.Cr.1975).

I

Title 10 O.S.1971, § 1101, which was in effect at the time of the contested convictions,1 defined the term “delinquent child” as a male person under the age of sixteen years. Under this statute, it was proper for the appellant to have been tried as an adult. However, in Lamb v. Brown, 456 F.2d 18 (10th Cir. 1972), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that statute was unconstitutional because it violated equal protection, and subsequently in Radcliff v. Anderson, 509 F.2d 1093 (10th Cir.1974), cert. denied 421 U.S. 939, 95 S.Ct. 1667, 44 L.Ed.2d 95 (1975), it determined that the ruling of Lamb should be applied retroactively.

In Dean v. Crisp, 536 P.2d 961 (Okl.Cr.1975), this Court held that the ruling of the Tenth Circuit in Radcliff was not binding on the courts of the State of Oklahoma. We also held in Dean that the applicable law was that which was in effect prior to the passage of the unconstitutional law: Comp.Stat.1931, Ch. 14, art. 4, § 1729, which provided that a delinquent child was any person under the age of sixteen and that the treatment accorded males under the unconstitutional statute was in fact the same as that to which they were entitled under the last valid statute. Relief was denied to all males between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years of age who had been treated as adults.

When the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals declared 10 O.S.1971, § 1101, to be unconstitutional, the Oklahoma Legislature immediately in Laws 1972, Ch. 122, § 1, raised the determinative age for boys to eighteen years, rather than lowering the age for girls to sixteen years. We interpret this to be an expression of public policy that had the discriminatory aspect of the statute been realized before it was passed, the resolution of the discrepancy would have been uniformity at age eighteen rather than at age sixteen. Additional considerations which lead us to this conclusion were the undesirability and practical impossibility of achieving parity by initiating adult prosecutions against all women who were treated as juveniles during the period controlled by the unconstitutional statute and the inevitable violation against the prohibition against double jeopardy2 such procedure would entail.

In Garner v. State, 430 F.Supp. 692, 694 (W.D.Okl.1975), the federal district court acknowledged that at the time of petitioner’s conviction it was undeniable that females were accorded preferential treatment, and that he was discriminated against by a gender-based differential statute. Although the conviction was affirmed after an evidentiary hearing, because the Court had no difficulty in finding with a moral and legal certainty petitioner would have been certified in the case, the Court in its initial opinion said:

“. . . The fallacy of such view [i. e., that the petitioner received all the protection to which he was entitled] lies in its disregard of the federal constitutional reality. He was entitled to equal protec[317]*317tion. He was entitled to the same treatment as the favored class. In short, it was the treatment that he received which flaws the proceedings. . . . ”

The inherent weakness in the majority approach in Dean is that it ignores the fact that during the period in question boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years did receive different treatment from that given to girls of the same age. Even if the position of Dean is adopted that boys received only the treatment to which they were entitled, then one must also accept the necessary corollary that the girls were given better treatment than that to which they were entitled. It is unavoidably true that there was unconstitutional discrimination and denial of equal protection.

Insofar as Dean v. Crisp, 536 P.2d 961 (Okl.Cr.1975), is inconsistent with the views expressed in this opinion, it is hereby overruled.

II

However, if Dean v. Crisp is to be overruled in part, the question of whether to give retroactive relief to all the boys between ages sixteen years and eighteen years who were prosecuted as adults without benefit of a certification hearing is presented.

In Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601, 608 (1965), the United States Supreme Court determined there is no absolute rule concerning retroac-tivity. The Court said:

“. . . [W]e believe that the Constitution neither prohibits nor requires retrospective effect. . . . Once the premise is accepted that we are neither required to apply, nor prohibited from applying, a decision retrospectively, we must then weigh the merits and demerits in each case by looking to the prior history of the rule in question, its purpose and effect, and whether retrospective operation will further or retard its operation.

Subsequently, the Court promulgated three criteria to be used in determining the question of retroactivity: the purpose to be served by the new rule; the extent to which law enforcement officers have relied on the old rule; and the effect which a retrospective application of the new rule will have upon the administration of justice.3

Then, in Robinson v. Neil, 409 U.S. 505, 93 S.Ct. 876, 35 L.Ed.2d 29 (1973), the United States Supreme Court stated that the Linkletter approach was not applicable to all retroactivity cases.4 The issue in Robinson was the retrospective application of the prohibition against double jeopardy, the Court said:

“The guarantee against double jeopardy is significantly different from procedural guarantees held in the Linkletter line of cases to have prospective effect only.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1979 OK CR 18, 591 P.2d 313, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-state-oklacrimapp-1979.