Tracey Rushing v. State of Mississippi

192 So. 3d 1113, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 329, 2016 WL 2984193
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided May 24, 2016·No. 2015-CP-00036-COA·Published

Opinions

WILSON, J„

for the Court:

¶ 1. Tracey Rushing pled guilty to selling cocaine and was sentenced .to thirty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of. Corrections (MDOC). He subsequently filed a motion for post-conviction relief in which he argued.,that he should have been sentenced under the amended version of Mississippi Code Annotated section 41-29-139 in effect when he was sentenced in July 2014, rather than the version in effect at the timé of his offense in 2013. The circuit court ruled that, Rushing’s sentence was proper and therefore denied his motion for post-conviction relief. Recently, this Court divided evenly on a substantively indistinguishable sentencing issue. Wilson v. State, - So.3d -, 2016 WL 1117662 (Miss.Ct.App.2016) (motion for rehearing pending). There, we affirmed the circuit court’s ruling that the defendant should be sentenced pursuant to the pre-July 1, 2014 version of the receiving-stolen-property statute, even though he was sentenced after the statute was amended effective July 1, 2014. We reach the same result here for essentially the same reasons given in the lead opinion in Wilson.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On August 29, 2013, Rushing sold approximately one tenth of a gram of crack cocaine to a confidential informant working with the Ridgeland Police Department. The informant met Rushing at the Red Roof Inn just north of County Line Road in Ridgeland and gave him $40 for the cocaine. Rushing was arrested and indicted for selling “a quantity of Cocaine” in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 41-29-139 (Rev.2013).

• ¶ 3. • On June 23, 2014, Rushing filed a petition to plead guilty. In his petition, Rushing acknowledged that his plea was an open plea-and that-the maximum sentence was thirty years’ imprisonment. In the petition, Rushing’s attorney took the position that he should be sentenced pursuant to section 41-129-139, as amended effective July 1, 2014. See 2014 Miss. Laws ch. 457, § 37 (“House Bill 585”). However, the' State’s position was that he should be sentenced-under the statute as it read at the time of his offense. This point of disagreement was significant. At the time of Rushing’s offense, a person convicted of selling cocaine could be “imprisoned for not more than thirty (30) years and shall be fined not less than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) nor more than One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00), or both[.]” Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-139(b)(1) (Rev.2013). However, as amended by House Bill 585, the statute provided that a person convicted of selling cocaine should be punished based upon the amount of cocaine sold, .as follows:

[1115] (A) Less than two (2) grams or ten (10) dosage units, be imprisoned for not more than eight (8) years or fined not' more than Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,-000.00), or both,
(B) Two (2) grams or ten (10) dosage units or more but less than ten (10) grams or twenty (20) dosage units, be imprisoned for not less than three (3) years nor more than twenty (20) years or fined not more than Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00), or both.
(C) Ten (10) grams or twenty (20) dosage units or more, but less than thirty (30) grams or forty (40) dosage units, be imprisoned for not less five (5) years nor more than, thirty (30) years or fined not more than Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00).

Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-139(b)(1) (Supp.2015).

¶ 4. Rushing’s plea hearing was held on July 7, 2014. The circuit judge advised Rushing that he agreed with the State that the amendments in House Bill 585 did not apply to offenses committed prior to the bill’s effective date, so he would' sentence Rushing under the statute as it read at the time of Rushing’s offense. Rushing confirmed that he understood the court’s posh tion and still desired to plead guilty, and the court accepted Rushing’s plea.

¶5. The court sentenced Rushing on July 21, 2014. The court discussed that Rushing had several prior felony convictions, including one crime of violence — -he was convicted of robbery as an accessory in 1984, two counts of burglary in 1993, possession of cocaine and receiving stolen property in 1999, and two counts of receiving stolen property in 2002. The court also discussed that the State could have charged Rushing as a habitual offender, a subsequent drug offender, or a violent habitual offender, which, if proven, would have resulted, -respectively, in a-mandatory thirty-year sentence without parole, a sixty-year maximum sentence, or a mandatory life sentence without parole. See Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-147 (Rev.2013); Miss.Code Ann. §§ 99-19-81 & 99-19-83 (Rev.2015). Although the State did not pursue these enhancements, the court concluded that a sentence of thirty years in MDOC custody was appropriate “[biased upon [Rushing’s] criminal history.”1

¶ 6. On October 31, 2014, Rushing filed a motion for post-conviction relief in which he argued that his sentence exceeded the maximum authorized by law because he should have been sentenced under section 41-29-139 as amended by House Bill 585, The circuit court denied Rushing’s motion. Citing Wilson v. State, 967 So.2d 32 (Miss.2007), the circuit court explained that Rushing properly was sentenced under the law in effect at the time of his offense. Rushing filed a timely notice- of appeal from the circuit court’s decision.

DISCUSSION

if 7. As noted at the outset of this opinion, this Court recently divided evenly on a substantively indistinguishable issue in Wilson v. State, - So.3d -, 2016 WL 1117662 (Miss.Ct.App.2016) (motion for rehearing pending). The precise issue in Wilson was whether the defendant should have been sentenced under the version of the receiving-stolen-property statute (Miss.Code Ann. § 97-17-70) in effect at the time of his offense and indictment or under the amended version in effect when he was sentenced. That statute, like the [1116] one at issue in this case, was amended effective July 1, 2014, by House Bill 585, The Legislature added to or amended the elements of the offenses in both statutes—elements related to the quantity of drugs sold under section 41-29-139, and elements related to the value of the stolen property under section 97-17-70. In Wilson, the trial judge sentenced the defendant under the version of the statute -in effect at the time of his sentence and indictment, and we affirmed'by an evenly divided Court. We- now affirm the denial of Rushing’s motion for post-conviction relief for the samé reasons.

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Tracey Rushing v. State of Mississippi, 192 So. 3d 1113, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 329, 2016 WL 2984193 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

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