State v. Sisneros

687 P.2d 736, 101 N.M. 679
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 10, 1984
Docket15189
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 687 P.2d 736 (State v. Sisneros) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Sisneros, 687 P.2d 736, 101 N.M. 679 (N.M. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

FEDERICI, Chief Justice.

In October 1980, defendant was charged by grand jury indictment with criminal sexual penetration in the second degree and kidnapping in the second degree. In January 1981, he pleaded guilty to the charges.

A dispute arose over the alleged existence of a plea bargain and a resulting expectation by defendant that he would be placed on probation. The trial judge sentenced defendant to six years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. Defendant appealed. On certiorari in that appeal, this Court directed that defendant be allowed to withdraw his original guilty plea. State v. Sisneros, 98 N.M. 201, 647 P.2d 403 (1982).

On remand, the case was assigned to another trial judge since the trial judge who originally sentenced defendant had retired from the bench. Pursuant to this Court’s directions, the new trial judge allowed defendant to withdraw his plea of guilty. The case was then set for trial by jury. In that trial, the jury found defendant guilty of criminal sexual penetration in the third degree (as a lesser included offense) and kidnapping in the second degree.

After the verdict and after receiving a presentence report and considering counsel’s arguments, the trial judge sentenced defendant to three years imprisonment on the criminal sexual penetration conviction and to nine years on the kidnapping conviction, to run concurrently, for a total sentence of nine years, in contrast to the original six year sentence. Defendant moved for reconsideration of the sentence, based on additional mitigating factors. After hearing argument and considering the further submissions, the trial court denied the motion.

In September 1983, the Court of Appeals affirmed defendant’s conviction. Defendant filed a motion for rehearing and to amend the docketing statement. The request was for the purpose of allowing defendant to raise the following issues on rehearing that had not been raised in the appeal:

(1) jurisdiction question regarding his original guilty plea and later retrial; and

(2) the aggravated sentence in retrial.

The Court of Appeals granted the motion and properly certified the case to this Court since the Court of Appeals is prohibited from reviewing the first issue under Alexander v. Delgado, 84 N.M. 717, 507 P.2d 778 (1973).

The State filed a motion to quash the order granting rehearing and filed a motion to clarify the case status and briefing schedule. After hearing these motions this Court ordered that:

(1) The rehearing be quashed on the issue of the jurisdictional question regarding Sisneros’ original guilty plea and later retrial as having been previously decided by this Court; and

(2) Sisneros and the State file briefs addressing the issue of the aggravated sentence.

This appeal poses an important question of first impression for this Court: under the rules established in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), what constitutes adequate compliance with due process requirements for resentencing defendants who are reconvicted after a successful appeal.

At issue here is an additional three years imprisonment that was imposed on defendant following an appeal in which this Court directed that he be allowed to withdraw his original guilty plea. State v. Sisneros. Under Pearce, the more severe sentence upon reconviction triggers an inquiry into the reasons underlying the imposition of the harsher penalty. Such an inquiry is required as a matter of due process to ensure that the more severe sentence was not imposed to punish a defendant for having successfully exercised his right to appeal. Pearce involved a state prisoner who had pursued a successful appeal, won a reversal and then had been sentenced to a longer prison term following reconviction after remand. After disposing of double jeopardy and equal protection questions, the United States Supreme Court stated that a trial judge may constitutionally impose a greater sentence upon retrial and that in resentencing, a judge may consider evidence from the second trial itself, a new presentence investigation, defendant’s prison record, and possibly other sources. Nonetheless, the Court proceeded to articulate a new due process concern under such circumstances.

The Court stated the key concern as follows:

Due process of law, then, 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. And since the fear of such vindictiveness may unconstitutionally deter a defendant’s exercise of the right to appeal or collaterally attack his first conviction, due process also requires that a defendant be freed of apprehension of such a retaliatory motivation on the part of the sentencing judge.

395 U.S. at 725, 89 S.Ct. at 2080.

To address those concerns, the Court then announced the following rule:

In order to assure the absence of such a motivation, we have concluded that whenever a judge imposes a more severe sentence upon a defendant after a new trial, the reasons for his doing so must affirmatively appear. Those reasons must be based upon objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the time of the original sentencing proceeding. And the factual data upon which the increased sentence is based must be made part of the record, so that the constitutional legitimacy of the increased sentence may be fully reviewed on appeal.

395 U.S. at 726, 89 S.Ct. at 2081.

Later cases have clarified the nature of the essential concerns first expressed in Pearce. The United States Supreme Court has held, for example, that a two-tier court system in which a defendant may appeal for a trial de novo from an adverse result in a court of limited jurisdiction contains inherent structural safeguards against vindictiveness, so that the “prophylactic” rules of Pearce do not apply to a more severe sentence after a de novo reconviction. Colten v. Kentucky, 407 U.S. 104, 116, 92 S.Ct. 1953, 1960, 32 L.Ed.2d 584 (1972).

Similarly, the Court has held that there are adequate safeguards inherent in a state system where a jury makes sentencing decisions. Even though the second jury may know that there was a previous trial, there is no realistic likelihood of a vindictive sentencing decision as long as the jury does not learn what the original sentence was. Chaffin v. Stynchcombe, 412 U.S. 17, 93 S.Ct. 1977, 36 L.Ed.2d 714 (1973).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
687 P.2d 736, 101 N.M. 679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sisneros-nm-1984.