State v. Johnson

1992 OK CR 72, 877 P.2d 1136, 65 O.B.A.J. 471, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 4, 1992 WL 314715
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 26, 1994
DocketS-90-1067
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1992 OK CR 72 (State v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Johnson, 1992 OK CR 72, 877 P.2d 1136, 65 O.B.A.J. 471, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 4, 1992 WL 314715 (Okla. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

JOHNSON, Judge:

The State of Oklahoma, under 22 O.S.1981, § 1053.1, is appealing a ruling of District Judge William Bliss, District Court of Muskogee County. On September 11, 1990, in Case No. CRF-88-527, Judge Bliss granted Appellees’ motion to dismiss the charge of Operating a Chop Shop under 47 O.S.Supp. 1988, § 1503(C)(1), for the reasons that 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1) is unconstitutionally vague and invalid and that the Second Amended Information failed to properly allege a crime under the statute charged.

The State argues that Judge Bliss erred in determining 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 1503(C)(1), unconstitutionally vague and invalid. Section 1503 provides:

C. 1. Any person who buys, disposes, sells, transfers, or possesses a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part, with knowledge that the vehicle identification number of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part has been altered, counterfeited, defaced, destroyed, disguised, falsified, forged, obliterated, or removed, upon conviction is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, or by a fine of not more than Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00), or both such imprisonment and fine.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this subsection shall not apply to a motor vehicle scrap processor who, in the normal legal course of business and in good faith, processes a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part by crushing, compacting, or other similar methods, provided that any vehicle identification number is not removed from the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part prior to or during any such processing.
3. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this subsection shall not apply to any owner or authorized possessor of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part which has been recovered by law enforcement authorities after having been stolen or where the condition of the vehicle identification number of the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part is known to or has been reported to law enforcement authorities. It shall be presumed that law enforcement authorities have knowledge of all vehicle identification numbers on a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part which are altered, counterfeited, defaced, disguised, falsified, forged, obliterated, or removed, when law enforcement authorities deliver or return the motor vehicle or motor vehicle part to its owner or authorized possessor after it has [1139]*1139been recovered by law enforcement authorities after having been reported stolen.

Judge Bliss offered neither reason nor finding in his Order declaring this Section unconstitutional. Thus, we must consider Appel-lees’ response herein in addressing their attack on said statute.

We first address Appellees’ “facial” challenge1 to the overbreadth of Section 1503. Appellees argue that the statute, because it does not take into consideration re-manufacturing practices and because one subsection of the statute makes possession legal and another makes possession illegal, could conceivably sweep into its ambit innocent persons and legitimate activities. It is a fundamental principle of constitutional adjudication that “a person to whom a statute may constitutionally be applied will not be heard to challenge that statute on the ground that it may conceivably be applied unconstitutionally to others, in other situations not before the Court.”2 Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 610, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 2915, 37 L.Ed.2d 830, 839 (1973). A statute is presumed to be constitutional and the person alleging its unconstitutionality has the burden of proving same beyond a reasonable doubt. Nunley v. State, 660 P.2d 1052, 1056 (Okl.Cr.1983); S.AH. v. State, 753 P.2d 381, 383 (Okl.Cr.1988). Appellees have failed to carry that burden.

In Pegg v. State, 659 P.2d 370, 372 (Okl.Cr.1983), this Court considered an overbreadth challenge and recognized the limitations set out in Broadrick, supra, on the use of over-breadth to void a statute on its face. The Supreme Court advised that declaring a statute facially invalid should be used sparingly and only as a last resort. Further, the Supreme Court advised that particularly where conduct and not merely speech is involved, the overbreadth of a statute must not only be real, but substantial as well, and judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep. To that end, whatever overbreadth may exist should be cured through case-by-case analysis of the fact situations to which its sanctions, assertedly, may not be applied.

For further guidance, we look to the considerations set forth in Hoffman Estates, supra, where the Supreme Court stated as follows:

In a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court’s first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. If it does not, then the overbreadth challenge must fail. The court should then examine the facial vagueness challenge and, assuming the enactment implicates no constitutionally protected conduct, should uphold the challenge only if the enactment is impermissi-bly vague in all of its applications. A plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others. A court should therefore examine the complainant’s conduct before analyzing other hypothetical applications of the law. (Emphasis added) Id. 455 U.S. at 102 S.Ct. at 1191.

When viewed in light of these principles, Appellees’ overbreadth attack on Section 1503 must fail. Indeed, there is no constitutional right to possess motor vehicles or motor vehicle parts having altered identification numbers. The State has a legitimate interest in controlling harmful, constitutionally “unprotected” conduct. Section 1503 does [1140]*1140not infringe any constitutionally protected aspects of the business of assembling vehicles from new and used parts, and is not overbroad as applied to such a business. We do not believe that the mere possibility of an erroneous application of this statute is justification for declaring it void.

We next address Appellees’ facial challenge to the vagueness of Section 1503. Objections to vagueness under the Due Process Clause rest on the lack of notice, and hence may be overcome in any specific case where reasonable persons would know that them conduct is at risk. See Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U.S. 356, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988). This Court has adopted the following expression- of the vagueness standard:

“A statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application_” Hayes v. Municipal Court of Oklahoma, 487 P.2d 974, 978 (Okl.Cr.1971); Switzer v. City of Tulsa, 598 P.2d 247, 248 (Okl.Cr.1979); and Pegg, supra.

It is well established that vagueness challenges to statutes which do not involve First Amendment freedoms must be examined in the light of the facts of the case at hand. See United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 95 S.Ct. 710, 42 L.Ed.2d 706 (1975), citing

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

Related

STATE v. COOPER
2018 OK CR 40 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2018)
STATE v. FEEKEN
2016 OK CR 6 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2016)
Randolph v. State
2010 OK CR 2 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2010)
Gouskos v. Griffith
122 F. App'x 965 (Tenth Circuit, 2005)
State v. Howerton
2002 OK CR 17 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2002)
State v. Thomason
2001 OK CR 27 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2001)
Malicoat v. State
2000 OK CR 1 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2000)
Allen v. City of Oklahoma City
1998 OK CR 42 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1992 OK CR 72, 877 P.2d 1136, 65 O.B.A.J. 471, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 4, 1992 WL 314715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-johnson-oklacrimapp-1994.