State v. Cavanaugh

673 P.2d 482, 207 Mont. 237, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 875
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1983
Docket83-021
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 673 P.2d 482 (State v. Cavanaugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cavanaugh, 673 P.2d 482, 207 Mont. 237, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 875 (Mo. 1983).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE MORRISON

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Defendant James Cavanaugh appeals the November 22, 1982, order of the District Court of the Eighth Judicial District, Cascade County, denying his petition for post-conviction relief.

On August 9, 1977, Cavanaugh and co-defendant Sam Spicer were each charged by information with four felony offenses: Count I, deceptive practices; Count II, attempt (deliberate homicide); Count III, aggravated kidnaping; and Count IV, aggravated assault. Pursuant to a plea bargaining agreement, each defendant pled guilty on August 15, 1977, to counts III and IV. Once the guilty pleas were accepted, and, upon motion of the county attorney, counts I and II against both defendants were dismissed.

Cavanaugh and Spicer were each sentenced on September 19, 1977 to 100 years for aggravated kidnaping and to 20 [239]*239years for aggravated assault, the maximum penalties for each offense. Further, pursuant to section 46-8-202(2), MCA, enacted July 1, 1977, the trial judge ordered that Cavanaugh and Spicer were both ineligible for parole or for participation in the prisoner furlough program. Co-defendant Spicer has since died.

James Cavanaugh and James Mesler thereafter filed an original application for a writ of habeas corpus in this Court, challenging the constitutionality of section 46-18-202(2), MCA, on several grounds: protection; due process; vagueness; and as being an unlawful delegation of legislative authority. We held the statute to be constitutional on August 14, 1980. See Cavanaugh and Mesler v. Crist (1980), 615 P.2d 890, 37 St.Rep. 1461.

Now, in this appeal of the trial court’s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, Cavanaugh asserts-that his pleas of guilty to the aggravated kidnaping and aggravated assault charges were not made knowingly, voluntarily, intelligently or with any understanding of their consequences for two reasons:

1. He was not told that pursuant to Section 46-18-202 (2), MCA, he might be denied parole or participation in the furlough program; and

2. He did not understand what was transpiring when he pled guilty.

As we are persuaded by reason one, we find it unnecessary to address reason two.

Defendant was denied parole and participation in the furlough program pursuant to section 46-18-202(2), MCA, which states in relevant part:

“(2) Whenever the District Court imposes a sentence of imprisonment in the state prison for a term exceeding 1 year, the court may also impose the restriction that the defendant be ineligible for parole and participation in the supervised release program while serving his term.”

It is undisputed that the possibility of being ineligible for parole or participation in the furlough program was not [240]*240mentioned by either the trial judge or the county attorney until the sentencing hearing. Cavanaugh testified at his post-conviction hearing that he had never been told by his attorney or anyone else, that if he pled guilty, he might be denied parole. Cavanaugh’s original attorney testified at that same hearing that he did not recall whether he informed Cavanaugh of that possibility.

Despite extensive efforts to do so, that attorney was unable to locate Cavanaugh’s case file. There is no evidence contradicting defendant’s claim that he was first informed of the possibility that he might be denied parole at the sentencing hearing.

Section 46-16-105(1) MCA states:

“Plea of guilty. (1) Before or during trial, a plea of guilty may be accepted when: “(a) the defendant enters a plea of guilty in open court; and
“(b) the court has informed the defendant of the consequences of his plea and of the maximum penalty provided by law which may be imposed upon acceptance of such plea.”

Defendant pled guilty in open court after being informed of the maximum penalties for each count. However, defendant contends that failure to inform him prior to the entry of his guilty pleas of the possibility that he might be denied parole constitutes failure to inform him of a consequence of his plea. Therefore, the trial court should not have accepted his guilty pleas and he must now be permitted to withdraw them, pursuant to section 46-16-105(2), MCA:

“(2) At any time before or after judgment the court may, for good cause shown, permit the plea of guilty to be withdrawn and a plea of not guilty substituted.”

We agree.

The consequences of one’s guilty plea includes, among many other things, the sentence which accompanies such a plea. “The restriction of parole and furlough program eligibility is ‘a part of the sentence’ by the express terms of [section 46-18-202(2), MCA]. . .” Cavanaugh v. Crist, 615 [241]*241P.2d at p. 893, 37 St.Rep. at p. 1464. Such a restriction has a great and profound effect upon the ultimate sentence served by a defendant.

“ . . . the unavailability of time an accused will have to serve in prison. If parole is unavailable, the mandatory period of incarceration under a given sentence is three times as long. . . It would seem that such a major effect on the length of possible incarceration would have great importance to an accused in considering whether to plead guilty.

“The danger is that the accused makes his decision to plead guilty underestimating by a factor of three the risk of prolonged mandatory incarceration.” Bye v. United States (2nd Cir. 1970), 435 F.2d 177 at p. 180.

Here, defendant knew when he pled guilty that he could be sentenced to a maximum of one-hundred years for aggravated kidnaping and twenty years for aggravated assault. He did not know that he might be found ineligible for parole. A flat sentence of one-hundred years is far different than the sentence anticipated by a defendant who knows he might be sentenced to one-hundred and twenty years, but presumes that parole will be possible. Because of the disparity between the anticipated and actual sentence, the plea bargain into which defendant thought he was entering was not the plea bargain accepted by the trial judge.

Federal trial courts are required to allow a defendant to withdraw his guilty plea if the trial judge refuses to accept the remainder of the plea bargain. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e)(4) provides:

“(4) Rejection of a plea agreement. If the court rejects the plea agreement, the court shall, on the record, inform the parties of this fact, advise the defendant personally in open court . . . that the court is not bound by the plea agreement, afford the defendant the opportunity to then withdraw his plea, and advise the defendant that persists in his guilty plea or plea of nolo contendere disposition of the case may be less favorable to the defendant than that contem[242]*242plated by the plea agreement.”

The American Law Institute adopted a nearly identical rule:

“Sentencing Following Plea.

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State v. Cavanaugh
673 P.2d 482 (Montana Supreme Court, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
673 P.2d 482, 207 Mont. 237, 1983 Mont. LEXIS 875, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cavanaugh-mont-1983.