State v. Williams

700 S.W.2d 451, 1985 Mo. LEXIS 321
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 21, 1985
DocketNo. 66747
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 700 S.W.2d 451 (State v. Williams) 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. Williams, 700 S.W.2d 451, 1985 Mo. LEXIS 321 (Mo. 1985).

Opinion

RENDLEN, Judge.

Convicted of forcible rape ’(§ 566.030, RSMo Supp. 1984 1) and attempted forcible sodomy, (§ 564.011, and §'566.060, RSMo Supp.1984),'defendant was sentenced both as a persistent sexual offender (§ 558.018, RSMo Supp.1984) and as a prior and persistent offender (§§ 558.016 and 557.036.4, RSMo Supp.1984) to concurrent fifty year terms of imprisonment without parole, on each count.

In this appeal no challenge is made to the sufficiency of the evidence nor the sentencing procedure employed by the court. Instead appellant attacks the persistent sexual offender statute, § 558.018, as facially invalid, contending the statute’s want of procedural safeguards renders it violative of the Missouri Constitution’s due process provision Mo. Const, art. 1, § 10, and the XIV amendment to the U.S. Const. He also attacks the statute as an ex post facto enactment, rendering it invalid under Mo. Const, art. 1, § 13 and the U.S. Const, art. 1, § 10 and concludes that his sentencing thereunder is void.

. By the amended information appellant was charged with forcible rape as well as attempted forcible sodomy and also as a persistent sexual offender because of a 1970 rape conviction and as a prior and persistent offender stemming from a 1967 conviction of assault- with intent to rob.

The current crimes occurred on the evening of January 25, 1984 in Kansas City. Two men, one of whom was appellant, grabbed the victim' and forced her into a muddy alley where she was forcibly raped and sodomized. Both men fled When a police officer appeared at the scene and shortly thereafter appellant was apprehended in a neighborhood apartment building, with mud on the knees and side of his pants. A pocket knife belonging to the victim and taken from her during the attack, was in appellant’s possession immediately-prior to his arrest.

As previously noted, no charge of error is made to. the convictions but instead appellant’s contentions are directed to the enhanced sentences imposed by the court.

Evidence of the earlier felony convictions serving as a basis for charges under the extended sentencing provisions of § 558.-016 and § 558.018 was presented during a hearing conducted by the trial court outside the jury’s presence. Appellant, with his attorneys, was confronted with the evidence showing those earlier offenses, afforded the opportunity to challenge that evidence and to present evidence in his own behalf. The court made comprehensive findings and entered its orders thereon.

[453]*453The appellant argues that the absence in § 558.0182 of detailed procedural guidelines for the conduct of such hearing renders that section of the statute invalid, requiring reversal of the sentence and remand of the cause. The Supreme Court in Specht v. Patterson, 386 U.S. 605, 87 S.Ct. 1209, 18 L.Ed.2d 326 (1967), cited by appellant, held that imposition of an extended term under a Colorado sex offenders statute constituted a new charge necessitating new findings of fact. The Colorado statute permitted application of the extended term provision simply on the entry of a psychiatric examination and a written report with the conclusions and recommendations of the examiner. This exclusive statutory procedure permitted the Colorado trial court to impose an extended term without a hearing, appearance of counsel, confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses, right to offer evidence or findings adequate for an appeal. The Court found the statute and the Colorado court’s practice failed to comport with the minimum requirements of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

On the other hand, § 558.018 does not permit our courts to impose extended sentences for persistent sexual offenders based simply on a psychiatric examination and written report from which the court could conclude (as under the Colorado statute) “that ... [a] person [convicted of specified sex offenses], if at large, constitutes a threat of bodily harm to members of the public, or is an habitual offender and mentally ill.” Id. at 607, 87 S.Ct. at 1210-11.

The procedure prescribed by the Colorado statute which fell short of minimum standards for due process, stands in contrast to Missouri law which neither permits nor by implication condones such practice. Hence, Specht is clearly distinguishable and cannot be said to control here.

Appellant, nevertheless, argues that § 558.018 is unconstitutional because it fails to specify the precise procedural rules for the trial court’s guidance. However, no authority is cited for the proposition that, as a matter of constitutional law, a statute must detail a procedural scheme for sentencing procedures. That argument loses force when the act can be and has been judicially construed as necessarily requiring that a defendant be granted due process, see Byers v. Crouse, 339 F.2d 550 (10th Cir.1964), and Missouri’s persistent sexual offender act has properly been so construed. State v. Burgin, 654 S.W.2d 627 (Mo.App.1983). There, the Western District correctly noted this Court’s rule of construction that when a power is granted by the law, a grant of power to do those things necessary to make it effective is necessarily implied.

Combining this rule of construction with the due process doctrine, it follows that when the legislature grants the power to impose an extended term for a person found to be a persistent sexual offender, the power to do all that is necessary to accomplish the sentencing of such a person has also been granted by necessary implication, and that in such cases the courts need only follow a procedure which will ensure due process.

Id. at 630; See also Shull v. Boyd, 251 Mo. 452, 158 S.W. 313 (Mo.1913).

Stated otherwise, the granting of due process in cases such as this sub judice need not rest on formal enactment of a detailed procedural scheme within a statute [454]*454such as § 558.021, RSMo Supp.19843, but on constitutional principle. State v. Davis, 663 S.W.2d 301 (Mo.App.1983).

Appellant next urges this Court to require the presence of legislatively enacted guidelines, on the basis of the holding in United States v. Harper, 729 F.2d 1216 (9th Cir.1984). There, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was faced with an espionage statute providing for a penalty of imprisonment or death, with absolutely no directions in the act as to whom the death penalty would apply. The court refused to leave such unfettered discretion in the hand of the fact finder, deciding that the espionage statute's death penalty provision was rendered unconstitutional by Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972). After Furman,

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

Related

State v. Harris
414 S.W.3d 447 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2013)
State v. Katura
837 S.W.2d 547 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
State v. Koonce
731 S.W.2d 431 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Nevels
712 S.W.2d 688 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
700 S.W.2d 451, 1985 Mo. LEXIS 321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-williams-mo-1985.