Com. v. Spangler, A. ( 2014 )

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
ANDRE LAMONT SPANGLER,
Appellant No. 277 MDA 2014
Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence March 15, 2011
In the Court of Common Pleas of Centre County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-14-CR-0002280-2009
BEFORE: BOWES, PANELLA, and PLATT, JJ.
CONCURRING MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED DECEMBER 02, 2014
Numerous cases from this Court have held challenges to the imposition
of a mandatory minimum statute relate to the legality of sentence.1 This
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1
Commonwealth v. Newman, 99 A.3d 86 (Pa.Super. 2014) (en banc);
Commonwealth v. Lawrence, 99 A.3d 116 (Pa.Super. 2014);
Commonwealth v. Valentine, 2014 PA Super 220; Commonwealth v.
Matteson, 96 A.3d 1064 (Pa.Super. 2014); Commonwealth v.
Thompson, 93 A.3d 478 (Pa.Super. 2014); Commonwealth v. Akbar, 91
A.3d 227 (Pa.Super. 2014); Commonwealth v. Watley, 81 A.3d 108(Pa.Super. 2013) (en banc); Commonwealth v. Munday, 78 A.3d 661(Pa.Super. 2013); Commonwealth v. Armstrong, 74 A.3d 228 (Pa.Super.
2013); Commonwealth v. Baker, 72 A.3d 652 (Pa.Super. 2013);
Commonwealth v. Hopkins, 67 A.3d 817 (Pa.Super. 2013);
Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 45 A.3d 1123 (Pa.Super. 2012);
Commonwealth v. Stein, 39 A.3d 365 (Pa.Super. 2012), disapproved on
other grounds by, Commonwealth v. Hanson, 82 A.3d 1023 (Pa. 2013);
Commonwealth v. Stokes, 38 A.3d 846 (Pa.Super. 2012);
Commonwealth v. Poland, 26 A.3d 518 (Pa.Super. 2011);
Commonwealth v. Kittrell, 19 A.3d 532 (Pa.Super. 2011);
Commonwealth v. Carpio-Santiago, 14 A.3d 903 (Pa.Super. 2011);
(Footnote Continued Next Page)
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authority includes decisions from this Court post-Commonwealth v.
Foster, 17 A.3d 332 (Pa. 2011) (OAJC). See footnote 1 (collecting cases).
Moreover, the plurality opinion by the Supreme Court leaves in place this
Court’s underlying decision in Foster, which remains binding precedent on
other three judge panels. See Sorber v. American Motorists Ins. Co.,
_______________________
(Footnote Continued)
Commonwealth v. Madeira, 982 A.2d 81 (Pa.Super. 2009);
Commonwealth v. McKibben, 977 A.2d 1188 (Pa.Super. 2009);
Commonwealth v. Foster, 960 A.2d 160 (Pa.Super. 2008), affirmed, 17
A.3d 332 (Pa. 2011) (OAJC); Commonwealth v. Rush, 959 A.2d 945(Pa.Super. 2008); Commonwealth v. Love, 957 A.2d 765 (Pa.Super.
2008); Commonwealth v. Diamond, 945 A.2d 252 (Pa.Super. 2008);
Commonwealth v. Stafford, 932 A.2d 214 (Pa.Super. 2007);
Commonwealth v. Harley, 924 A.2d 1273 (Pa.Super. 2007);
Commonwealth v. Johnson, 920 A.2d 873 (Pa.Super. 2007);
Commonwealth v. Littlehales, 915 A.2d 662 (Pa.Super. 2007);
Commonwealth v. Bongiorno, 905 A.2d 998 (Pa.Super. 2006);
Commonwealth v. Bell, 901 A.2d 1033 (Pa.Super. 2006);
Commonwealth v. Edrington, 780 A.2d 721 (Pa.Super. 2001);
Commonwealth v. Wynn, 760 A.2d 40 (Pa.Super. 2000), reversed on
other ground, 786 A.2d 202 (Pa. 2001); see also Commonwealth v.
Vasquez, 744 A.2d 1280 (Pa. 2000) (Commonwealth’s issue on appeal
regarding failure to impose a mandatory fine under 18 Pa.C.S. § 7508 was
non-waivable illegal sentencing claim); Commonwealth v. Eisenberg, 98
A.3d 1268 (Pa. 2014) (constitutional challenge to mandatory minimum fine
was illegal sentencing question); Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 900 A.2d 368(Pa.Super. 2006) (en banc) (noting in dicta that certain mandatory minimum
sentencing claims present legality of sentence issues).
In Commonwealth v. Williams, 787 A.2d 1085 (Pa.Super. 2001), a
panel of this Court did hold that a constitutional challenge to 42 Pa.C.S.
§ 9712, based on it violating the defendant’s jury trial rights, was a
discretionary sentencing claim. That decision is no longer valid in light of
decisions such as Newman.
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680 A.2d 881, 882 (Pa.Super. 1996) (“As long as the decision has not been
overturned by our Supreme Court, it remains binding precedent.”).
The majority’s tally of votes in the Supreme Court’s Foster decision,
though interesting, is a non-sequitur. The question is whether other
decisions from this Court have interpreted similar claims as legality-of-
sentence issues. Frankly, the fact that four Justices, some of whom are no
longer on our High Court, rejected a bright-line test is not of precedential
significance where a majority of Justices could not agree on a single
rationale. Our en banc decisions and other cases decided both before and
after the Supreme Court’s decision in Foster remain viable precedent that
must be applied in a principled manner where the issues are the same or
cannot be meaningfully distinguished.
I recognize that the author of the learned majority is reiterating an
almost identical position to the one he espoused in Commonwealth v.
Boyd, 73 A.3d 1269 (Pa.Super. 2013) (en banc). That decision involved a
fine; hence, it is not controlling in this case. Moreover, Boyd cannot be read
to overturn decisions that occurred after it.
Like the majority, however, I agree that mere incantation that a
mandatory minimum sentencing statute violates the constitution should not
always be considered a legality of sentence question. This Court does not
sua sponte raise and address every conceivable constitutional claim where a
mandatory minimum is imposed, nor do we generally find a sentence to be
illegal unless an intervening decision occurs, rendering the sentencing
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statute or application of the statute constitutionally or statutorily suspect.
For example, this case involves a mandatory sentence triggered by prior
convictions. Prior convictions currently remain an exception to Alleyne v.
United States, 133 S.Ct. 2151 (2013), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530
U.S. 466 (2000), which permit a judge to determine prior convictions by a
preponderance-of-the-evidence standard at sentencing. We do not sua
sponte address and afford relief on a claim that the mandatory violates the
jury trial right based on counting the votes of Justices on the United States
Supreme Court.
Indeed, I have commented on the need for this Court to more carefully
consider individualized sentencing issues in determining whether the claim
implicates the legality of sentence construct. See Commonwealth v.
Tobin, 89 A.3d 663 (Pa.Super. 2014). This Court has recently held that
secondary issues arising out of a mandatory sentencing claim relate to the
legality of a sentence in vacating a sentence where the secondary matter
was not preserved or argued. For example, in Newman, this Court reached
a question of severability that had not been raised below under the guise
that the statute involved was a mandatory sentencing statute. Similarly, in
Valentine, supra, this Court vacated a sentence in part based on Newman
and a separation of powers argument that had never been leveled at the
trial level.
I acknowledge that I myself, based on existing precedent, have sua
sponte raised an Alleyne mandatory minimum sentencing issue, but I found
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the sentence therein to be legal. Watley, supra. It is one thing for this
Court to consider an issue as a legality of sentence claim and then reject the
position that the sentence is illegal, but quite another to afford relief on a
nuanced statutory or constitutional argument not advanced at the trial level
or on appeal. Indeed, in Watley, I set forth that merely invoking that a
sentence violated due process did not preclude waiver. Furthermore, our
Supreme Court has declined to reach legality of sentence questions that
were not adequately briefed. Commonwealth v. Briggs, 12 A.3d 291, 344
(Pa. 2011) (declining to review Eighth Amendment and Article I, § 13 claims
due to inadequate briefing); see also Commonwealth v. Belak, 825 A.2d
1252, 1256 n.10 (Pa. 2003) (declining to address legality of sentence
question where issue was not included in petition for allowance of appeal or
original brief).
Were I writing on a clean slate, or in an en banc decision where the
issues are squarely before this Court, I would be willing to revisit our prior
decisions to the extent that they can be read as a blanket statement that all
mandatory minimum sentencing challenges implicate the legality of a
sentence. Pointedly, I agree with the author of the majority insofar as he
recognizes that Appellant’s due process and equal protection claims are not
the type of claims that are “obvious or undeniable.” Majority Memorandum,
at 8.
To be sure, I joined this Court’s opinion in Commonwealth v.
Lawrence, 99 A.3d 116 (Pa.Super. 2014), which found waiver of an equal
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protection and ex post facto challenge to a mandatory minimum sentence.
Therein, we also discussed that a mandatory sentencing statute related to
an Alleyne issue was an illegal sentencing claim. However, we
distinguished between Apprendi, Alleyne, Eighth Amendment claims, and
double jeopardy issues and other constitutional challenges to a mandatory
sentence. The Lawrence Court opined,
In our view, there is a meaningful difference between the
remaining [equal protection and ex post facto claims] Appellant
raises in this case and issues pertaining to the Eighth
Amendment, merger, Apprendi and Alleyne. The Eighth
Amendment, merger, Apprendi, and even Alleyne all directly
circumscribe the trial court's sentencing process and sentencing
authority. Stated another way, the goal of the Cruel and
Unusual Punishment Clause, the merger doctrine, Apprendi and
Alleyne is to protect defendants from the imposition of
punishments by trial judges that are unconstitutional, imposed
through unconstitutional processes, or are a “greater
punishment than the legislature intended.”
Lawrence, supra at 123 (emphasis in original). We continued,
Appellant has not cited to any case where we have allowed a
constitutionally-based legality of sentencing claim regarding
mandatory minimum sentencing to be raised for the first time on
appeal, leaving aside cases involving Alleyne. If we were to
hold that an Equal Protection and Ex Post Facto challenge is non-
waivable because a mandatory minimum sentence is involved,
th[e]n any state or federal constitutional provision that could
serve as a basis to challenge a mandatory minimum sentence
must also be non-waivable as well. Further, if we did not require
preservation in the trial court, all of these constitutional
challenges could also be raised by this Court sua sponte as well.
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Id. at 124 (footnote omitted); compare Commonwealth v. Harley, 924
A.2d 1273 (Pa.Super. 2007) (rejecting equal protection argument to
mandatory minimum sentence).
I am cognizant that in Commonwealth v. Wynn, 760 A.2d 40(Pa.Super. 2000), reversed on other ground, 786 A.2d 202 (Pa. 2001), we
did consider a constitutional claim unrelated to Apprendi, Alleyne, Eighth
Amendment issues, double jeopardy or merger as an illegal sentencing
claim. We, nonetheless, affirmed. That decision was initially granted review
by our Supreme Court on the question of whether the constitutional
challenge was a non-waivable illegal sentencing claim. See
Commonwealth v. Wynn, 771 A.2d 1232 (Pa. 2001). However, the
statute in question was ruled unconstitutional by another decision and,
without addressing the question of waiver or issue preservation, the
Supreme Court reversed in a per curiam order. In subsequent cases, we
have retreated from the view that any constitutional challenge to a
sentencing statute is non-waivable. See Watley, supra; Lawrence,
supra; Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 900 A.2d 368 (Pa.Super. 2006) (en
banc).
Since neither of Appellant’s claims is the type of mandatory minimum
challenge that has previously been held to implicate the legality of one’s
sentence, I agree that Appellant’s due process and equal protection issues
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are waived.2 See Lawrence, supra; see also Commonwealth v. Gunter,
849 A.2d 587 (Pa.Super. 2004) (equal protection claim waived even though
defendant was sentenced to school zone mandatory minimum).
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2
I join in the majority’s rejection of Appellant’s Eighth Amendment position.
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