State v. Rahab (Slip Opinion)

2017 Ohio 1401, 80 N.E.3d 431, 150 Ohio St. 3d 152
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 18, 2017
Docket2015-1892
StatusPublished
Cited by108 cases

This text of 2017 Ohio 1401 (State v. Rahab (Slip Opinion)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio 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. Rahab (Slip Opinion), 2017 Ohio 1401, 80 N.E.3d 431, 150 Ohio St. 3d 152 (Ohio 2017).

Opinions

DeWine, J.

{¶ 1} Malik Rahab turned down a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for three years. A jury found him guilty, and a judge sentenced him to six years in prison. This, he says, constituted an impermissible “trial tax”; in other words, the judge increased Rahab’s sentence in retaliation for the exercise of his constitutional right to a jury trial. To support his claim, he points to comments made by the trial judge that he maintains should give rise to an inference that the court was acting vindictively.

{¶ 2} The First District Court of Appeals rejected Rahab’s argument, concluding from the record before it that the trial court had based its sentence on the facts of the case and the defendant’s prior history rather than on his decision to go to trial. We accepted Rahab’s discretionary appeal. 145 Ohio St.3d 1407, 2016-Ohio-899, 46 N.E.3d 702.

{¶ 3} Resolution of this appeal turns on whether we adopt the presumption of vindictiveness urged by Rahab. We decline to do so: we hold that there is no presumption of vindictiveness when a defendant rejects a plea bargain and is subsequently sentenced to a harsher term. The burden is on the defendant to show the judge acted vindictively. And an appellate court may reverse a sentence for vindictiveness only if, upon its examination of the entire record, it clearly and convincingly finds that the sentence was based on actual vindictiveness. Applying this standard, we do not find Rahab has demonstrated actual vindictiveness, and so we affirm the judgment below.

[153]*153I. A Rejected Plea,, a Trial, and a Sentence

{¶ 4} Rahab was charged with burglary. Before his jury trial was to begin, the trial court asked about plea negotiations. The state recounted that it had offered Rahab a three-year agreed sentence if he would plead guilty as charged but that he had rejected the offer. The court confirmed with Rahab that he wanted to reject the plea offer, and the trial commenced.

{¶ 5} The burglary victim, Christina Hewitt, testified at trial. One morning— shortly after she and her husband had moved into their home—she noticed that a living-room window was open and her purse missing. Though a fingerprint lifted from the window matched Rahab’s, he told the police that he had never been at the home. The jury found Rahab guilty. Following a sentencing hearing, the court imposed a six-year prison term.

{¶ 6} Rahab appealed, arguing that his sentence was contrary to law because the trial court had punished him for exercising his right to a jury trial rather than accepting the plea offer. In affirming, the court of appeals relied upon its decision in State v. Stafford, 158 Ohio App.3d 509, 2004-Ohio-3893, 817 N.E.2d 411 (1st Dist.), which held that a presumption of vindictiveness arises when a court involves itself in unsuccessful plea negotiations and then, following trial, sentences a defendant to a greater sentence than was offered. Acknowledging that the trial court had not involved itself in plea negotiations, the court concluded, “The record establishes that the trial court based Rahab’s sentence on his personal history and the facts of the case * * * rather than as punishment for exercising his right to a jury trial.”

II. Proof of Vindictiveness

{¶ 7} Rahab argues that the trial court vindictively imposed a sentence in retaliation for the exercise of his right to a jury trial, in violation of his due-process rights under the United States Constitution.

{¶ 8} “To punish a person because he has done what the law plainly allows him to do is a due process violation of the most basic sort * * *." Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 363, 98 S.Ct. 663, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978), citing North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 738, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) (Black, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). There is no question, then, that a sentence vindictively imposed on a defendant for exercising his constitutional right to a jury trial is contrary to law. See State v. O’Dell, 45 Ohio St.3d 140, 147, 543 N.E.2d 1220 (1989). The more difficult question is how a defendant proves vindictiveness.

{¶ 9} Rahab seeks to relieve himself of the burden of proving that the trial court’s sentence in his case amounted to a punishment for his decision to go to trial. He argues instead that the court’s statements during sentencing gave rise [154]*154to an inference that it sentenced him vindictively and that the inference could be rebutted only by “an unequivocal statement as to whether the decision to go to trial was or was not considered in fashioning the sentence,” see State v. Scalf, 126 Ohio App.3d 614, 621, 710 N.E.2d 1206 (8th Dist.1998). Thus, he is asking this court to presume vindictiveness based on the court’s statements. Amicus curiae the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers would have us go even further and find that a presumption of vindictiveness arises whenever a court imposes a sentence that is harsher than was offered during plea negotiations. In its view, then, anything greater than a three-year sentence for Rahab would be presumptively contrary to law. But vindictiveness on the part of a sentencing judge has been presumed in only a narrow class of cases.

A. The Pearce Presumption and its Limits

{¶ 10} The presumption that we are urged to apply has its underpinnings in the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656. Ordinarily, appellate courts defer to trial courts’ broad discretion in making sentencing decisions. See Wasman v. United States, 468 U.S. 559, 563-564, 104 S.Ct. 3217, 82 L.Ed.2d 424 (1984); see also Williams v. New York, 337 U.S. 241, 247, 69 S.Ct. 1079, 93 L.Ed. 1337 (1949). The sentencing statute and case law reflect this deference. See R.C. 2953.08(G); State v. Marcum, 146 Ohio St.3d 516, 2016-Ohio-1002, 59 N.E.3d 1231, ¶ 23. Pearce marked a departure from the traditional rule. See Wasman at 564.

{¶ 11} In Pearce, the defendant had successfully appealed and then, upon retrial and conviction for the same offense, received a harsher sentence. The court held that a presumption of vindictiveness arose when the judge imposed a more severe sentence after the second trial. See Pearce at 726. The presumption could be rebutted by affirmative, nqnvindictive reasons for the sentence on the record. Id. “Due process of law,” the court reasoned, “requires that vindictiveness against a defendant for having successfully attacked his first conviction must play no part in the sentence he receives after a new trial.” Id. at 725.

{¶ 12} Pearce may have appeared to herald “a rule of sweeping dimension.” Alabama v. Smith, 490 U.S. 794, 799, 109 S.Ct. 2201, 104 L.Ed.2d 865 (1989).

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ohio 1401, 80 N.E.3d 431, 150 Ohio St. 3d 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rahab-slip-opinion-ohio-2017.