State v. Wade

421 S.W.3d 429, 2013 WL 6916794, 2013 Mo. LEXIS 309
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 24, 2013
DocketNos. SC 92382, SC 92491, SC 92786
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 421 S.W.3d 429 (State v. Wade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wade, 421 S.W.3d 429, 2013 WL 6916794, 2013 Mo. LEXIS 309 (Mo. 2013).

Opinions

ZEL M. FISCHER, Judge.

In this appeal Michael Wade, Jason Reece Peterson, and Edwin Carey each argue that article I, section 13 of the Missouri Constitution, which prohibits the passage of any law “retrospective in its operation,” applies to criminal laws and, therefore, their charges under § 566.150,1 are unconstitutional as applied to them. This Court recently held that the retrospective clause of article I, section 13 does not apply to criminal laws. These cases now require this Court to determine whether § 566.150 is a criminal law.

This Court concludes-that § 566.150 is a criminal law. Therefore, the circuit courts erred in dismissing the charges against Peterson and Carey on the grounds that the statute was unconstitutionally retrospective as applied to them, but the circuit court correctly overruled Wade’s motion to dismiss. The judgments entered against the State with respect to Peterson and Carey are reversed, and the cases are remanded. The judgment in Wade’s case is affirmed.

Factual and Procedural History

The facts are undisputed in each case. The cases are consolidated for opinion because they present the same legal question.

State v. Wade

On November 25, 1996, Wade pleaded guilty to statutory sodomy in the first degree, § 566.062, child molestation in the second degree, § 566.068, and sexual abuse in the first degree, § 566.100. Wade was sentenced, pursuant to § 559.115, RSMo 1994, to participate in the Sexual Offender Assessment Unit program. Upon successful completion of the pro[431]*431gram, the circuit court suspended the remainder of Wade’s sentences and ordered him released on probation for a period of five years. Wade was a registered sex offender and in compliance with sex offender registration requirements.

On August 22, 2011, Wade was arrested at Castlewood State Park for violating § 566.150. Section 566.150 prohibits any individual who has pleaded guilty to, or been convicted of, or been found guilty of various sex offenses from “knowingly be[ing] present in or loiter[ing] within five hundred feet of any real property comprising any public park with playground equipment or a public swimming pool.” Wade was charged with knowingly being present within 500 feet of a public park with playground equipment. Wade filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, claiming the statute was unconstitutionally retrospective as applied to him in violation of article I, section 13. The circuit court overruled the motion, and Wade waived his right to a jury trial. After a bench trial, Wade was convicted and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. The circuit court suspended execution of his sentence and placed Wade on probation for a period of five years. Wade appeals.

State v. Peterson

On January 20, 1998, Peterson was convicted of the offense of indecent behavior with a juvenile in Louisiana. Peterson resides in Missouri and is in compliance with all sex offender registration requirements. On June 17, 2011, a grand jury issued an indictment charging Peterson with the crime of loitering within 500 feet of a public park in violation of § 566.150.

Peterson filed a motion to dismiss the charge against him as unconstitutionally retrospective in violation of article I, section 13. The State responded by arguing the retrospective ban contained in the constitution applied only to civil rights and proceedings, not to criminal proceedings, relying on the holding in Ex parte Bethurum, 66 Mo. 545 (1877), to support its position. The State also argued that if the retrospective ban applied to criminal statutes, the statute did not tread on any of Peterson’s vested rights, nor did it confer any additional duty, obligation, or disability on Peterson to comply with the statute.

The circuit court sustained Peterson’s motion to dismiss the indictment. The circuit court assumed the ban contained in article I, section 13 was not limited to civil statutes and found § 566.150 was an unconstitutionally retrospective law as applied to Peterson. The State appeals.

State v. Carey

On May 7, 1997, Edwin Carey pleaded guilty to the offense of statutory rape in the second degree in violation of § 566.034, RSMo Supp.1997. Carey is in compliance with all sex offender registration requirements.

In 2010, the State filed an information charging Carey with the offense of loitering within 500 feet of a public park in violation of § 566.150. Carey filed a motion to dismiss the charge against him, alleging that § 566.150 is unconstitutionally retrospective as applied to him because it imposed a new obligation that was not present at the time of his conviction in violation of article I, section 13. Carey’s motion alleged that § 566.150 became effective 12 years after his May 1997 guilty plea. The motion further alleged that laws similar to § 566.150 had been found unconstitutionally retrospective as applied to offenders convicted before the enactment of the law. The State responded to the motion by arguing that article I, section 13’s prohibition against laws retrospective in their operation applied only to civil rights and remedies.

[432]*432After a hearing, the circuit court sustained Carey’s motion and dismissed the information. The State appeals.

Because these three cases involve the validity of a statute, this Court has exclusive appellate jurisdiction. Mo. Const, art. V, § 3.

Standard of Review

Whether a statute is constitutional is an issue of law that this Court reviews de novo. State v. Honeycutt, 421 S.W.3d 410, 414 (Mo. banc 2013). “Statutes are presumed constitutional and will be found unconstitutional only if they clearly contravene a constitutional provision.” Id. “The person challenging the validity of the statute has the burden of proving the act clearly and undoubtedly violates the constitutional limitations.” Id.

The Prohibition of Laws Retrospective in Their Operation Does Not Apply to Criminal Laws

The United States Constitution2 and the constitutions of every state prohibit ex post facto laws. Only a handful of state constitutions prohibit the passage of laws retrospective in their operation.3 The Missouri Constitution has included such a provision since 1820.4 In the current eon-stitution, article I, section 13 provides, “That no ex post facto law, nor law impairing the obligation of contracts, or retrospective in its operation, or making any irrevocable grant of special privileges or immunities, can be enacted.”

This Court recently held, in State v. Honeycutt, that the retrospective clause of article I, section 13 does not apply to criminal laws. 421 S.W.3d at 423-25. In Honeycutt, this Court reaffirmed the holding of Bethurum that the ex post facto clause and the clause prohibiting any law retrospective in its operation in article I, section 13 have separate and distinct legal meanings, whereby the ex post facto clause applies to determine the validity of criminal laws and the clause prohibiting any law retrospective in its operation applies to determine the validity of laws affecting civil rights and remedies. Bethurum, 66 Mo. at 552-53. For a complete textual and historical analysis of article I, section 13’s prohibitions against any law retrospective in its operation and further rationale behind this Court’s decision to reaffirm Bethurum’s

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421 S.W.3d 429, 2013 WL 6916794, 2013 Mo. LEXIS 309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wade-mo-2013.