Michael Dwayne EDWARDS v. STATE of Tennessee, Wayne Brandon, Warden

269 S.W.3d 915, 2008 Tenn. LEXIS 611
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 18, 2008
DocketM2006-01043-SC-R11-HC
StatusPublished
Cited by102 cases

This text of 269 S.W.3d 915 (Michael Dwayne EDWARDS v. STATE of Tennessee, Wayne Brandon, Warden) 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
Michael Dwayne EDWARDS v. STATE of Tennessee, Wayne Brandon, Warden, 269 S.W.3d 915, 2008 Tenn. LEXIS 611 (Tenn. 2008).

Opinions

OPINION

WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, and WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JJ., joined. GARY R. WADE, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, J., joined.

We granted the State’s application for permission to appeal to consider whether the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in remanding this habeas corpus case to the trial court for a hearing on Michael Dwayne Edward’s claim that his sentence is illegal. After careful consideration we conclude that, even assuming the trial court erroneously classified Edwards as a persistent offender for sentencing, this non-jurisdictional error renders the judgment voidable, not void, and does not entitle Edwards to habeas corpus relief. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the trial court dismissing the habeas corpus petition.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 24, 1998, Edwards participated in a burglary of a car dealership in Henry County. On November 4, 1998, a jury convicted Edwards of the offense. On December 9, 1998, the trial court sentenced Edwards on the burglary conviction, classifying him as a persistent offender and imposing a Range III, nine-year sentence. Edwards appealed, raising a single issue, the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction, and this Court denied his application for permission to appeal. See State v. Edwards, No. W1999-00591-CCA-R3-CD, 2000 WL 674671 (Tenn.Crim.App. May 16, 2000), perm. wpp. denied (Tenn. Dec. 4, 2000).1

On March 22, 2006, almost six years after the conclusion of his appeal as of right, Edwards filed a habeas corpus petition in Hickman County, where he was incarcerated,2 challenging the judgment classifying him as a persistent offender. Edwards argued that, at the time of sentencing, he lacked the five prior convictions necessary to support the persistent offender classification. According to Edwards, one of the convictions used to support the classification, felony evading arrest, occurred after the burglary and did not qualify as a “prior conviction” for purposes of the persistent offender statute. As a result, Edwards argued, the trial court lacked jurisdiction and authority to classify him as a persistent offender.

In order to substantiate his claim, Edwards attached several documents to his petition, including the State’s notice of sentencing status, on which the following handwritten notation appears: “Henry County Circuit Court-Minutes/entries Judge’s Docket Book Docket No. 12756 Evading (F/E) 9/30/98.” Edwards also attached copies of five judgments of eonvic[918]*918tion, including a copy of the judgment on the felony evading arrest conviction, which listed the offense date as May 19, 1998, five months after the burglary was committed. Edwards did not attach a transcript of the sentencing hearing.

The following statutory provisions place Edwards’ habeas corpus claim in context. “A ‘persistent offender’ is a defendant who has received: (l)[a]ny combination of five (5) or more prior felony convictions within the conviction class or higher, or within the next two (2) lower felony classes where applicable.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-107(a) (2006).3 For purposes of the persistent offender statute, “ ‘prior conviction’ means a conviction for an offense occurring prior to the commission of the offense for which the defendant is being sentenced.” TenmCode Ann. § 40-35-107(b)(1) (2006); see also State v. Blouvett, 904 S.W.2d 111, 113 (Tenn.1995) (construing the statutory term “prior conviction” to mean “a conviction that has been adjudicated prior to the commission of the more recent offense for which sentence is to be imposed”). Persistent offenders receive Range III sentences. TenmCode Ann. § 40-35-107(c) (2006). Sentences in Range III carry higher criminal penalties and require offenders to serve a greater portion of the sentence before becoming eligible for release. Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-107 (2006), Sentencing Comm’n cmts; see TenmCode Ann. § 40-35-501(e) (2006). The punishment range for burglary, a Class D felony, is between two and twelve years, with sentences in Range III from eight to twelve years. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-14-402(c) (2006) (stating that burglary is a Class D felony); TenmCode Ann. § 40-35-112(c)(4) (2006) (providing Range III sentence for Class D felonies). “The finding that a defendant is or is not a persistent offender is appealable by either party.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-107(d) (2006).

The State moved to dismiss Edwards’ habeas corpus petition, asserting that neither the petition nor the attachments established that the evading arrest conviction actually served as a basis for Edwards’ persistent offender classification. The State also maintained that, even if true, Edwards’ assertions failed to establish grounds for habeas corpus relief. Thereafter, the trial court summarily dismissed the petition, concluding without additional comment, that the petition failed to establish grounds for habeas corpus relief.

Edwards appealed. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed and remanded to the trial court for the appointment of counsel and for an “evidentiary hearing.” In so doing, the Court of Criminal Appeals stated that it could not “ascertain ... whether the convicting court relied upon the evading arrest conviction in arriving at the range determination, whether there were other prior felonies considered[,] or whether the petitioner agreed to be sentenced outside the range.” The Court of Criminal Appeals instructed the Hickman County habeas corpus court to determine on remand “whether the petitioner’s range classification was improper” and to remand the case to the convicting court in Henry County “for appropriate sentencing” if it concluded that “the sentence imposed was illegal.”

The State filed a petition for rehearing in the Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that the trial court properly dismissed the habeas corpus petition because, “even if [919]*919true, the illegal range determination would render the petitioner’s sentence merely voidable, not void.” The State relied upon McConnell v. State, 12 S.W.3d 795 (Tenn.2000), for the proposition that non-jurisdictional errors in offender classification do not result in an illegal sentence or provide grounds for habeas corpus relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals acknowledged that, under McConnell, “offender classification can be the subject of plea negotiations and agreed to by a defendant provided that the sentence imposed is within the statutory authority of the sentencing act.” However, the Court of Criminal Appeals limited the reasoning of McConnell to plea-bargained sentences, emphasizing that “[ujnlike the situation described in McConnell,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Frederick Demetrius DeBerry v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2025
Russell Lee Maze and Kaye M. Maze v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2025
John Allen Hessmer v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2025
State of Tennessee v. Pervis Tyrone Payne
Tennessee Supreme Court, 2025
Glenard Cortez Thorne v. Brandon Watwood, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2025
Alvin Dean Shaver v. Sean Phillips, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2025
Cedric Jones v. Brian Eller, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2024
Jonathan W. Stephenson v. Zachary Pounds, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2024
Howard Jefferson Atkins v. Brian Eller, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2024
Patrick Marshall v. Brandon Watwood, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2024
Timothy L. Jefferson v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2022
Gai D. Kuot v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2021
Emoshia Duncan v. Commonwealth of Kentucky
Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2021
Charles A. Guess v. Shawn Phillips, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2020
William Zukowski v. Shawn Phillips, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
Antonio D. Idellfonso-Diaz v. Russell Washburn, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
David G. Andrews v. Jonathan Lebo, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
Vernon Charles Patton v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
Steven Anderson v. Russell Washburn, Warden
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
United States v. Dewayne Rockymore
909 F.3d 167 (Sixth Circuit, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
269 S.W.3d 915, 2008 Tenn. LEXIS 611, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-dwayne-edwards-v-state-of-tennessee-wayne-brandon-warden-tenn-2008.