Holt v. Black

550 F.2d 1061
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 3, 1977
DocketNo. 76-1202
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 550 F.2d 1061 (Holt v. Black) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holt v. Black, 550 F.2d 1061 (6th Cir. 1977).

Opinion

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Holt is serving a 21-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter after a plea of guilty in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Kentucky, entered October 2, 1973. Prior to his indictment and plea of guilty in the Circuit Court, appellant, a juvenile under Kentucky law,1 had been adjudicated a delinquent after a hearing in Jefferson County’s Juvenile Court wherein the delinquency petition was based upon the same crime to which his October 2,1973, Circuit Court plea was entered.

Further detailed facts in this matter are unnecessary to decision, since defendant-appellee Black, through the brief of the Attorney General of Kentucky, concedes that “in the light of the holding in Breed [Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519, 95 S.Ct. 1779, 44 L.Ed.2d 346 (1975)] the appellant was placed in jeopardy in this case the second time when he was indicted and held to answer to that indictment in the Jefferson Circuit Court.” Thus we deal in this case with a pure question of law — Is this case controlled, retroactively or retrospectively, by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the applicability of the double jeopardy clause of the United States Constitution in Breed v. Jones, supra, so as to render void appellant’s Circuit Court sentence because, prior to its entry, he had been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for the same crime?

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides in part:

No person shall be . subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb

In the Breed case Chief Justice Burger held for a unanimous Court:

[T]he risk to which the term jeopardy refers is that traditionally associated with “actions intended to authorize criminal punishment to vindicate public justice.” United States ex rel. Marcus v. Hess [317 U.S. 537], at 548-549 [63 S.Ct. 379, at 388, 87 L.Ed. 443]. Because of its purpose and potential consequences, and the nature and resources of the State, such a proceeding imposes heavy pressures and burdens — psychological, physical, and financial — on a person charged. The purpose of the Double Jeopardy Clause is to require that he be subject to the experience only once “for the same offence.” See [1063]*1063Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187 [78 S.Ct. 221, 223, 2 L.Ed.2d 199] (1957); Price v. Georgia, 398 U.S. [323], at 331 [90 S.Ct. 1757, at 1762, 26 L.Ed.2d 300 (1970) ]; United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 479 [91 S.Ct. 547, 554, 27 L.Ed.2d 543] (1971) (opinion of Harlan, J.).
In In re Gault [387 U.S. 1], at 36 [87 S.Ct. 1428 at 1448, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967)], this Court concluded that, for purposes of the right to counsel, a “proceeding where the issue is whether the child will be found to be ‘delinquent’ and subjected to the loss of his liberty for years is comparable in seriousness to a felony prosecution.” See In re Winship [397 U.S. 358], at 366 [90 S.Ct. 1068 at 1073, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970)]. The Court stated that the term “delinquent” had “come to involve only slightly less stigma than the term ‘criminal’ applied to adults,” In re Gault, supra [387 U.S.], at 24 [87 S.Ct. 1428, at 1441; see In re Winship, supra [397 U.S.], at 367 [90 S.Ct. 1068, at 1074], and that, for purposes of the privilege against self-incrimination, “commitment is a deprivation of liberty. It is incarceration against one’s will, whether it is called ‘criminal’ or ‘civil.’ ” In re Gault, supra [387 U.S.], at 50 [87 S.Ct. 1428, at 1455]. See 387 U.S., at 27 [87 S.Ct. 1428, at 1443]; In re Winship, supra [397 U.S.], at 367 [90 S.Ct. 1068, at 1974].12
12 Nor does the fact “that the purpose of the commitment is rehabilitative and not punitive . . change its nature. . . . Regardless of the purposes for which the incarceration is imposed, the fact remains that it is incarceration. The rehabilitative goals of the system are admirable, but they do not change the drastic nature of the action taken. Incarceration of adults is also intended to produce rehabilitation.” Fain v. Duff, 488 F.2d [218] at 225, 5 Cir. See President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime 8-9 (1967).
% ifc * tfc
We deal here, not with “the formalities of the criminal adjudicative process,” McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. [528], at 551 [91 S.Ct. 1976, at 1989, 29 L.Ed.2d 647 (1970)] [opinion of Blackmun, J.], but with an analysis of an aspect of the juvenile court system in terms of the kind of risk to which jeopardy refers. Under our decisions we can find no persuasive distinction in that regard between the proceeding conducted in this case pursuant to Cal. Welf. & Inst’ns Code § 701 and a criminal prosecution, each of which is designed “to vindicate [the] very vital interest in enforcement of criminal laws.” United States v. Jorn, supra [400 U.S.], at 479 [91 S.Ct. 547, at 554], We therefore conclude that respondent was put in jeopardy at the adjudicatory hearing. Jeopardy attached when respondent was “put to trial before the trier of the facts,” ibid., that is, when the Juvenile Court, as the trier of the facts, began to hear evidence. See Serfass v. United States, 420 U.S. [377], at 388 [95 S.Ct. 1055, 43 L.Ed.2d 265 (1975)].13
13 The same conclusion was reached by the California Court of Appeal in denying respondent’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In re Gary, J., 17 Cal.App.3d 704, 710, 95 Cal.Rptr. 185, 189 (1971).
Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519, 529-31, 95 S.Ct. 1779, 1786-1787, 44 L.Ed.2d 346 (1975).

The Kentucky Attorney General, of course, does not dispute the holding of the Breed case, but does argue that it should not be applied to the instant conviction and sentence because they occurred in 1973— well before the Breed decision in May of 1975. He contends that Breed should not be applied “retroactively” under the analysis contained in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965). The District Judge in our instant case agreed Breed should not be applied retroactively. We believe, however, that the application of retroactivity of a Florida double jeopardy holding (See Waller v. Florida, 397 U.S. 387, 90 S.Ct. 1184, 25 L.Ed.2d 435 (1970)) in Robinson v. Neil, 409 U.S. 505, 93 S.Ct. 876, 35 L.Ed.2d 29 (1973), is much more relevant to our instant appeal than the general retroactivity analysis of Linkletter v. Walker, supra.

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Douglas Anthony Holt v. Harold Black, Warden
550 F.2d 1061 (Sixth Circuit, 1977)

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550 F.2d 1061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-black-ca6-1977.