Sills v. State

884 S.W.2d 139, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 228
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 14, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 884 S.W.2d 139 (Sills v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sills v. State, 884 S.W.2d 139, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 228 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

TIPTON, Judge.

The petitioner, William F. Sills, appeals as of right from the life sentence imposed by the Sullivan County Criminal Court after the trial court had granted him post-conviction relief from a previous life sentence resulting from his 1987 second degree murder conviction. The petitioner contends that the trial court erred by resentencing him under the 1982 Sentencing Act instead of the 1989 Sentencing Act and, in any event, by imposing a life sentence. The state joins in the petitioner’s request that the case be remanded for sentencing pursuant to State v. Pearson, 858 S.W.2d 879 (Tenn.1993). In Pearson, the supreme court provided that in cases involving pre-1989 act offenses for which sentencing is to occur after the effective date of the 1989 act, a trial court is to determine the appropriate sentence under each of the acts and then impose the lesser of the two. Id. at 884. Under the peculiar posture of this case, we respectfully disagree with the parties’ contentions and we conclude that the trial court properly applied the 1982 act.

The petitioner was originally charged with the first degree murder of a cab driver who was found shot to death. The state’s theory was that the petitioner was a passenger in the cab and robbed the driver, during which the driver was killed. The petitioner admitted being in the cab and possessing a firearm, but he claimed that he was drunk, that the driver attempted to rob him, and that he shot the driver in response. The jury convicted him of second degree murder.

[141]*141The original life sentence was based upon the petitioner being a Range II, persistent and especially aggravated offender under the 1982 Sentencing Act. He was found to be a persistent offender because of five prior felony convictions — three 1974 heroin sale convictions in Montgomery County, a 1988 attempt to commit automobile burglary conviction in Sullivan County, and a 1984 robbery conviction in Davidson County. See T.C.A. § 40-35-106(a) (1982) [repealed]. He was found to be an especially aggravated offender because the murder was committed while he was on parole from the robbery conviction. See T.C.A. § 40-35-107(3)(B) (1982) [repealed]. The sentence was affirmed on direct appeal with this court stating that the “most significant factor in the record is the defendant’s long history of criminal convictions,” particularly referring to “burglary, larceny, robbery, and the sale of heroin.” State v. William Francis Sills, No. 808, Sullivan Co., 1988 WL 79775 at ⅜5 (Tenn.Crim.App., Aug. 1, 1988).

Through subsequent post-conviction cases, the petitioner successfully attacked and had vacated the convictions for the three drug felonies and the attempt to commit automobile burglary because they were obtained by means of constitutionally invalid guilty pleas. Consequently, his ultimate request to the trial court in the murder post-conviction case was that his previous sentence be voided and that he be resentenced as a Range I, standard offender.

Proeedurally, although certain post-conviction issues remained to be litigated, the trial court stated that it was ready to proceed with a sentencing hearing and to hear any evidence either party had to offer. Neither party proffered any evidence not already existing in the record and the petitioner asserted that sentencing was a “question of legal issues” as opposed to testimony. He contended that he was entitled to resentencing under the 1989 act. The trial court disagreed, stating the following:

In re-sentencing I hold that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1982 continues to apply because this involves strictly an adjustment in the original sentencing. The entire sentence has not been set aside due to substantive or procedural flaws or due to lack of jurisdiction. It’s simply adjusting the sentence to conform with all these prior convictions having been set aside, four (4) of five (5). The one that has not been set aside though is the one for which he was on parole. I think the notice was sufficient. It stated that he was on parole. It stated that one of the offenses for which he was on parole was robbery and that fact is correct. I don’t think that it is technically flawed under the cases that construed the notice statute in effect at that time were very liberal in construing the notice, much more so than the statute of today. So I don’t think the notice is flawed at all. So under the present law or under the 1982 law he is still a Range II Offender because, as the parties agree, it was an especially — it would be an especially aggravated offense under that law, T.C.A. 40-35-107, a felony committed while on parole, subsection (3), subsection (B).

Its reasoning was based upon State v. Polk, 845 S.W.2d 171 (Tenn.1992), in which the supreme court held that the 1982 act continued to apply to a case remanded for partial modification of the original sentence after the effective date of the 1989 act.

After the petitioner sought to distinguish Polk by contending that sentencing in his case involved a change in the facts, i.e., the change in the number of prior convictions, the trial court stated that “this is just simply a modification of the original procedure where you’re simply changing the sentence from a Range II forty percent (40%) sentence to a Range II thirty-five percent (35%) sentence.” From the record before it, the trial court proceeded to determine the existing enhancement and mitigating factors, to consider the circumstances surrounding the offense and the petitioner’s background, and to impose a life sentence upon him as a Range II, especially aggravated offender.

The petitioner contends that Polk is distinguishable from his case because, in Polk, the underlying facts never changed, the resen-tencing resulted from a “narrow appellate remand order on direct appeal” based solely upon improper application of the sentencing law, and there was no “full blown sentencing [142]*142hearing in which enhancement and mitigating factors were weighed.” The state refrains the last contention by stating in its brief:

[A]s the Judge had to reweigh the evidence in determining the defendant’s sentence, the new hearing constituted a resen-tencing rather than modification of his original sentence. Accordingly, the defendant is entitled to have his sentence determined pursuant to the 1982 and 1989 Act and then have the lesser of the two sentences imposed.

Under the 1989 act, absent constitutional prohibition, any person sentenced after its effective date for an offense occurring while the 1982 act was in effect is to be sentenced under the 1989 act. T.C.A. § 40-35-117(b). The legislature enacted the 1989 act with the following provision:

Section 115. This act shall not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, or proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

1989 TenmPubActs, ch. 591; See

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
884 S.W.2d 139, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sills-v-state-tenncrimapp-1994.