People v. Hanson

1 P.3d 650, 97 Cal. Rptr. 2d 58, 23 Cal. 4th 355
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 19, 2000
DocketS078689
StatusPublished
Cited by149 cases

This text of 1 P.3d 650 (People v. Hanson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Hanson, 1 P.3d 650, 97 Cal. Rptr. 2d 58, 23 Cal. 4th 355 (Cal. 2000).

Opinion

97 Cal.Rptr.2d 58 (2000)
23 Cal.4th 355
1 P.3d 650

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
Melvin Eugene HANSON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S078689.

Supreme Court of California.

June 19, 2000.

*59 Mark D. Greenberg, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Oakland, for Defendant and Appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren and Bill Lockyer, Attorneys General, George Williamson and David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Carol Wendelin Pollack, Assistant Attorney General, John R. Gorey, William V. Ballough and Kyle S. Brodie, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

BROWN, J.

When a defendant successfully appeals a criminal conviction, California's constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy precludes the imposition of more severe punishment on resentencing. (People v. Henderson (1963) 60 Cal.2d 482, 495-497, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677 (Henderson).) The question here is whether a statutorily mandated restitution fine comes within this rule. We conclude such fines constitute punishment and find no principled basis for excluding them from the rationale of Henderson. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld a $9,000 increase in defendant's restitution fine on resentencing.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A jury convicted defendant Melvin Eugene Hanson of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); all undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code), three counts of insurance fraud former Ins.Code, § 556, now Ins.Code, § 1871.1), two counts of grand theft (Pen. Code, § 487, former subd. 1), and conspiracy to commit these crimes (id., § 182). It also found true a special circumstance allegation (id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(1)) and two excessive taking allegations (id., § 12022.6, subd. (b)). The trial court sentenced defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the special circumstance murder conviction in addition to various terms of imprisonment on the other counts. The court also imposed a restitution fine of $1,000 pursuant to former Government Code section 13967, subdivision *60 (a). (Stats.1988, ch. 975, § 1, pp. 3151-3152.)

The Court of Appeal affirmed in part; modified the special circumstance murder conviction to second degree murder; reversed and dismissed with prejudice the special circumstance finding; and reversed defendant's sentence as to all counts. It remanded the matter to the trial court solely for resentencing. On remand, a different court sentenced defendant to 25 years to life in prison on the conspiracy to murder count and stayed various lesser terms of imprisonment on the other counts pursuant to section 654. The court also increased the restitution fine to $10,000.

Defendant appealed the additional fine contending the increase violated the state constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. (Cal. Const., art. I, § 15.) The Court of Appeal rejected this argument. Concluding it remained an open question whether the prohibition against increased sentence after a reversal on appeal applies to fines, the court found no "`"cogent reasons"'" to construe the state prohibition any more broadly than its federal counterpart. (People v. Monge (1997) 16 Cal.4th 826, 844, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121 (Monge); see id. at pp. 843-845, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121.) Since the federal double jeopardy clause "imposes no restrictions upon the length of a sentence imposed upon reconviction" (North Carolina v. Pearce (1969) 395 U.S. 711, 719, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (Pearce)), defendant's increased fine did not violate state constitutional law either. In reaching this conclusion, the court expressly disagreed with the contrary holding of the Court of Appeal in People v. Thompson (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 1269, 1276, 76 Cal.Rptr.2d 267. We granted review to resolve this conflict and to determine the proper scope of our Constitution's double jeopardy protection in the context of resentencing.

DISCUSSION

The seminal decision of Henderson, supra, 60 Cal.2d 482, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677, and its progeny lie at the crux of the issue before us. In Henderson, the defendant secured reversal of his murder conviction for which he had been sentenced to life in prison. Following retrial, he was again convicted of murder but was sentenced to receive the death penalty. On appeal, he argued the increased punishment violated the state's prohibition against double jeopardy, and this court agreed.[1]

In reaching this conclusion, we analogized to the rule of both state and federal law that under the double jeopardy clause "a reversed conviction of a lesser degree of a crime precludes conviction of a higher degree on retrial...." (Henderson, supra, 60 Cal.2d at p. 497, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677; see Gomez v. Superior Court (1958) 50 Cal.2d 640, 645-649, 328 P.2d 976; Green v. United States (1957) 355 U.S. 184, 190, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199.) "It is immaterial to the basic purpose of the constitutional provision against double jeopardy whether the Legislature divides a crime into different degrees carrying different punishments or allows the court or jury to fix different punishments for the same crime." (Henderson, supra, 60 Cal.2d at p. 497, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677.) In either instance, "a defendant is not required to elect between suffering an erroneous conviction to stand unchallenged and appealing therefrom at the cost of forfeiting a valid defense to the greater offense...." (Id. at p. 496, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677.) "`"[A] defendant faced with such a `choice' takes a `desperate chance' in securing the reversal of the erroneous conviction. The law should not, and in our judgment does not, place the defendant in such an incredible dilemma."' [Citation.]" (Ibid., quoting Gomez v. Superior Court, supra, 50 Cal.2d at pp. 651-652, 328 P.2d 976, quoting Green v. United States, supra, *61 355 U.S. at p. 193, 78 S.Ct. 221.) In sum, "[a] defendant's right of appeal from an erroneous judgment is unreasonably impaired when he is required to risk his life to invoke that right. Since the state has no interest in preserving erroneous judgments, it has no interest in foreclosing appeals therefrom by imposing unreasonable conditions on the right to appeal." (Henderson, supra, 60 Cal.2d at p. 497, 35 Cal.Rptr. 77, 386 P.2d 677; see also In re Cameron (1968) 68 Cal.2d 487, 491-492, 67 Cal.Rptr.

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Bluebook (online)
1 P.3d 650, 97 Cal. Rptr. 2d 58, 23 Cal. 4th 355, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hanson-cal-2000.