PARKE, WARDEN v. RALEY
No. 91-719
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 5, 1992-Decided December 1, 1992
506 U.S. 20
John F. Manning argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Starr, Assistant Attorney General Mueller, Deputy Solicitor General Bryson, and Sean Connelly.
J. Gregory Clare, by appointment of the Court, 503 U. S. 957, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Mark R. Brown.*
JUSTICE O‘CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
Kentucky‘s “Persistent felony offender sentencing” statute,
I
In May 1986, the Commonwealth charged respondent Ricky Harold Raley with robbery and with being a persistent felony offender in the first degree.* The latter charge was based on two burglaries to which respondent had pleаded guilty in November 1979 and October 1981. Respondent never appealed his convictions for those crimes. He nevertheless moved to suppress them in the persistent felony offender proceeding, arguing that they were invalid under Boykin because the records did not contain transcripts of the plea proceedings and hence did not affirmatively show that respondent‘s guilty pleas were knowing and voluntary.
The trial court held a hearing according to procedures set forth in Commonwealth v. Gadd, 665 S. W. 2d 915 (Ky. 1984), and Dunn v. Commonwealth, 703 S. W. 2d 874 (Ky. 1985), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 832 (1986). In Gadd, the Supreme Court of Kentucky observed that the persistent felony offender statute requires that the prosecution prove only the fact of a previous conviction beyond a reasonable doubt; the Commonwealth need not also show that the conviction was validly obtained. 665 S. W. 2d, at 917. But, citing Burgett v. Texas, 389 U. S. 109 (1967), the court also held that defend-
After the prosecution filed certified copies of the prior judgments of conviction for burglary, both sides presented evidence about the earlier plea proceedings. Respondent testified that he had an 11th grade education, that he read adequately, that he was not intoxicated or otherwise mentally impaired when he entered the challenged pleas, and that he was represented by counsel on both occasions. He remembered the trial judge in each case asking him whether his plea was voluntary, but he said he could not remember whether he was specifically told about the rights he waived by pleading guilty. The government‘s evidence showed that in the 1979 proceeding, respondent signed (though he later claimed not to have read) a “Plea of Guilty” form, which stated that he understood the charges against him, the maximum punishment he faced, his constitutional rights, and that a guilty plea waived those rights. The attorney who represented respondent in the first case verified his own signature on another part of the form indicating that he had fully explained respondent‘s rights to him. As to the 1981 plea, respondent acknowledged signing a form that specified the charges to which he agreed to plead guilty. He also ad-
Based on this evidence, the trial court denied respondent‘s suppression motion. Respondent then entered a conditional guilty plea on the robbery and the persistent felony offender counts, reserving the right to appeal the suppression determination. The trial court sentenced him to 5 years for robbery, enhanced to 10 because of the persistent felony offender conviction.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed. It found the totality of circumstances surrounding the 1979 plea sufficient to support a finding that the plea was knowing and voluntary. It also upheld use of the 1981 conviction. The court explained that respondent‘s knowledge of his rights in November 1979 permitted an inference that he remained aware of them 23 months later. Respondent‘s testimony, moreover, indicated that his sophistication regarding his legal rights had increased substantially after his first conviction. The Supreme Court of Kentucky denied discretionary review.
Respondent then filed a federal habeas petition, arguing that the Kentucky courts had erred in requiring him to adduce evidence, rather than requiring the Commonwealth affirmatively to prove the prior convictions’ validity. The District Court denied the petition for essentially the same reasons given by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Raley v. Parke, Civ. Action No. C89-0756-L(A) (WD Ky., Mar. 15, 1990). The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, however, agreed with respondent, relying on its recent decision in Dunn v. Simmons, 877 F. 2d 1275 (1989), cert. denied, 494 U. S. 1061 (1990). 945 F. 2d 137 (1991). Simmons held that when no transcript of the prior guilty plea proceeding exists, the prosecution has the entire burden of establishing the plea‘s validity, and no presumption of regularity attaches to the final judgment. 877 F. 2d, at 1277. It also held that when the prosecution seeks to demonstrate the regularity of thе prior proceeding with extrarecord evidence, that evi-
The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court‘s determination with respect to the 1979 plea but reversed with respect to the 1981 plea. It declined to infer that respondent remembered his rights from 1979, reasoning that such an inference would give rise to line-drawing problems and would discriminate improperly between accused recidivists and first offenders on the basis of prior court experience. The Court of Appeals observed thаt because the trial court hearing took place before Simmons was decided, the Commonwealth had not yet had an opportunity to try to meet the higher standard of proof that decision imposed. Thus, rather than issue the writ of habeas corpus outright, the Court of Appeals directed the District Court to grant the writ if Kentucky did not hold a new hearing on the validity of the 1981 conviction in compliance with Simmons within 90 days. We granted certiorari. 503 U. S. 905 (1992).
II
A
Statutes that punish recidivists more severely than first offenders have a long tradition in this country that dates back to colonial times. See, e. g., I The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay 52 (Boston 1869) (1692 statute providing progressive punishments for robbery and burglary); 3 Laws of Virginia 276-278 (W. Henning ed. 1823) (1705 recidivism statute dealing with hog stealing); see also Graham v. West Virginia, 224 U. S. 616, 623 (1912). Such laws currently are in effect in all 50 States, see Department of Justice, Statutes Requiring the Use of Criminal History Record Information 17-41 (June
States have a valid interest in deterring and segregating habitual criminals. See Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U. S. 263, 284 (1980). We have said beforе that a charge under a recidivism statute does not state a separate offense, but goes to punishment only. See Oyler v. Boles, 368 U. S. 448, 452 (1962); Graham, supra, at 623-624; McDonald v. Massachusetts, 180 U. S. 311, 313 (1901). And we have repeatedly upheld recidivism statutes “against contentions that they violate constitutional strictures dealing with double jeopardy, ex post facto laws, cruel and unusual punishment, due process, equal protection, and privileges and immunities.” Spencer v. Texas, 385 U. S. 554, 560 (1967) (citing Oyler, supra; Gryger v. Burke, 334 U. S. 728 (1948); Graham, supra; McDonald, supra; Moore v. Missouri, 159 U. S. 673 (1895)). But see Solem v. Helm, 463 U. S. 277 (1983) (life sentence without parole imposed under recidivism statute violated Eighth Amendment when current conviction was for passing a bad check and prior offenses were similarly minor).
The States’ freedom to define the types of convictions that may be used for sentence enhancement is not unlimited. In Burgett v. Texas, 389 U. S. 109 (1967), we held that uncounseled convictions cannot be used “against a person either to support guilt or enhance punishment for another offense.” Id., at 115. This Court has nevertheless also expressed a willingness to uphold, under the Due Process Clause, a variety of state procedures for implementing otherwise valid recidivism statutes. See Spencer, supra (due process allows government to introduce proof of past convictions before
B
As an initial matter, we decline to reach the broad argument advanced by petitioner and the Solicitor General that Kentucky‘s procedure is a fortiori constitutional because, with narrow exceptions not applicable here, due process does not require state courts to permit challenges to guilty pleas used for enhancement purposes at all. Petitioner did not make this argument below or in his petition fоr certiorari. We ordinarily do not reach issues not raised in the petition for certiorari, see Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 535 (1992), and it is unnecessary for us to determine whether States must allow recidivism defendants to challenge prior guilty pleas because Kentucky does allow such challenges. We turn, then, to the question before us.
It is beyond dispute that a guilty plea must be both knowing and voluntary. See, e. g., Boykin, 395 U. S., at 242;
In Boykin the Court found reversible error when a trial judge accepted a defendant‘s guilty plea without creating a record affirmatively showing that the plea was knowing and voluntary. Id., at 242. The Sixth Circuit thought rejection of Kentucky‘s burden-shifting scheme compelled by Boykin‘s statement that the waiver of rights resulting from a guilty plea cannot be “presume[d] . . . from a silent record.” Id., at 243. Kentucky favors the prosecution with only an initial presumption upon proof of the existence of a prior judgment; but because a defendant may be unable to offer rebuttal evidence, the Sixth Circuit reasoned that Kentucky‘s procedure improperly permits the Commonwealth to carry its burden of persuasion upon a “bare record of a conviction.” Simmons, 877 F. 2d, at 1278.
We see no tension between the Kentucky scheme and Boykin. Boykin involved direct review of a conviction allegedly based upon an uninformed guilty plea. Respondent, however, never appealed his earlier convictions. They became final years ago, and he now seeks to revisit the question of their validity in a separate recidivism proceeding. To import Boykin‘s presumption of invalidity into this very different context would, in our view, improperly ignore another presumption deeply rooted in our jurisprudence: the “presumption of regularity” that attaches to final judgments, even when the question is waiver of constitutional rights. Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 464, 468 (1938). Although we are perhaps most familiar with this principle in habeas corpus actions, see, e. g., Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880,
There is no good reason to suspend the presumption of regularity here. This is not a case in which an extant transcript is suspiciously “silent” on the question whether the defendant waived constitutional rights. Evidently, no transcripts or other records of the earlier plea colloquies exist at all. Transcripts of guilty plea proceedings are normally made in Kentucky only if a direct appeal is taken or upon the trial judge‘s specific direction, Tr. of Oral Arg. 13-14, and the stenographer‘s notes and any tapes made of the proceedings normally are not preserved more than five years, id., at 16-17. The circumstance of a missing or nonexistent record is, we suspect, not atypical, particularly when the prior conviction is several years old. But Boykin colloquies have been required for nearly a quarter century. On collateral review, we think it defies logic to presume from the mere unavailability of a transcript (assuming no allegation that the unavailability is due to governmental misconduct) that the defendant was not advised of his rights. In this situation, Boykin does not prohibit a state court from presuming, at least initially, that a final judgment of conviction offered for purposes of sentence enhancement was validly obtained.
Respondent argues that imposing even a burden of production on him is fundamentally unfair because “a constitutionally protected right is in question.” Brief for Respondent 15. By this he apparently refers to the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights that a defendant waives by pleading guilty. Our precedents make clear, however, that even when a collateral attack on a final conviction rests on constitutional grounds, the presumption of regularity that attaches to finаl judgments makes it appropriate to assign a proof burden to the defendant. See, e. g., Johnson, supra, at 468-469.
Respondent also contends that Kentucky‘s rule is unfair because it may be difficult to prove the invalidity of a conviction entered many years ago, perhaps in another jurisdiction, when records are unavailable and witnesses inaccessible. We have little doubt that serious practical difficulties will confront any party assigned an evidentiary burden in such
Respondent cites no historical tradition or contemporary practice indicating that Kentucky‘s scheme violates due process. See Medina, supra, at 446, 447. For much of our history, it appears that state courts altogether prohibited defendants in recidivism proceedings from challenging prior convictions as erroneous, as opposed to void for lack of jurisdiction. See, e. g., Kelly v. People, 115 Ill. 583, 588, 4 N. E. 644, 645-646 (1886); accord, State v. Webb, 36 N. D. 235, 243, 162 N. W. 358, 361 (1917). In recent years state courts have permitted various challenges to prior convictions and have allocated proof burdens differently. Some, like the Sixth Circuit, evidently place the full burden on the prosecution.
Interpretations of analogous federal laws by the Courts of Appeals point even more strongly away from respondent‘s position. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act,
In sum, nеither our precedents nor historical or contemporary practice compel the conclusion that Kentucky‘s burden-shifting rule violates due process, and we cannot say that the rule is fundamentally unfair in its operation. Accordingly, we hold that the Due Process Clause permits a State to impose a burden of production on a recidivism defendant who challenges the validity of a prior conviction under Boykin.
C
Petitioner also challenges the Sixth Circuit‘s holding that the prosecution‘s extrarecord evidence must be clear and convincing. In petitioner‘s view, the preponderance of the evidence stаndard applicable to constitutional claims raised on federal habeas, see, e. g., Johnson, 304 U. S., at 468-469, is appropriate. The Sixth Circuit based its conclusion to the contrary on Boykin, observing that an “extraordinary standard of persuasion” is justified “in view of misgivings inherent in ‘collateral proceedings that seek to probe murky memories.‘” Simmons, 877 F. 2d, at 1277 (quoting Boykin, 395 U. S., at 244); see also Roddy v. Black, 516 F. 2d 1380, 1384 (CA6), cert. denied, 423 U. S. 917 (1975). Respondent, in support of the Sixth Circuit‘s heightened standard, reiterates his arguments regarding the importance of the constitutional rights at stake and the government‘s position relative to the defendant‘s.
Our analysis of this question parallels our discussion of the proper allocation of proof burdens. Boykin did not addrеss the question of measure of proof, and even if it had, it would not necessarily follow that the same standard should apply in recidivism proceedings. We find respondent‘s arguments no more persuasive here than they were in the allocation context. Given the difficulties of proof for both sides, it is
III
Respondent no longer challenges the validity of his 1979 plea. Thus, the final issue before us is whether the Kentucky courts properly concluded that respondent‘s 1981 guilty plea was valid. For the proper standard of review, petitioner cites Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U. S. 422 (1983), a case quite similar to this one. In Lonberger, the state defendant challenged a prior conviction used to obtain a death sentence on the ground that the conviction was based on a guilty plea invalid under Boykin. We held that although “the governing standard as to whether a plea of guilty is voluntary for purposes of the Federal Constitution is a question of federal law,” 459 U. S., at 431, questions of historical fact, including inferences properly drawn from such facts, are in this context entitled to the presumption of correctness accorded state court factual findings under
We note that petitionеr‘s theory of the case, which we have declined to consider, suggests a different standard. If Kentucky‘s procedure is indeed not constitutionally mandated, the Kentucky courts’ determination that respondent understood his rights when he entered his plea would seem to be reviewable at most for sufficiency of the evidence under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (1979). There is no need to choose between the two standards of review in this case, however, because we are convinced that the Kentucky courts’ factual determinations are “fairly supported by the record” within the meaning of
The Kentucky Court of Appeals, reviewing the trial court‘s decision nоt to suppress the 1981 conviction, observed that respondent had an 11th grade education, could read adequately, was represented by counsel in the 1981 proceedings, and was in no way mentally impaired when he entered his plea. The court noted that respondent had signed a form specifying the charges to which he agreed to plead guilty. And it found that he had been fully advised of his rights in 1979. Respondent does not now dispute those determinations. The Kentucky Court of Appeals inferred that respondent remained aware in 1981 of the rights of which he was advised in 1979. Supporting that inference was the court‘s determination, based on resрondent‘s testimony at the trial court hearing, that his “knowledge and sophistica-
We have previously treated evidence of a defendant‘s prior experience with the criminal justice system as relevant to the question whether he knowingly waived constitutional rights, see, e. g., Lonberger, supra, at 437; Gryger v. Burke, 334 U. S., at 730, and we think the Kentucky Court of Appeals fairly inferred that respondent understood the full consequences of his 1981 plea. That, combined with respondent‘s admission that he understood the charges against him and his self-serving testimony that he simply could not remember whether the trial judge advised him of other rights, satisfied every court that has considered the issue that the government carried its burden of persuasiоn under the Kentucky framework. We cannot say that this was error.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is accordingly
Reversed.
JUSTICE BLACKMUN, concurring in the judgment.
I agree that Kentucky‘s burden-shifting procedures established in Dunn v. Commonwealth, 703 S. W. 2d 874, 876 (Ky. 1985), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 832 (1986), are constitutional under the Due Process Clause and that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that the Commonwealth had the burden of establishing by clear and convincing evidence that the prior guilty pleas complied with Boykin v. Alabama,
The persistent-felony-offender provision is located not in the substantive criminal offense chapters of the Kentucky Revised Statutes but as part of chapter 532, where the offense classifications and the respective penalties are located. Section 532.080 is entitled “Persistent felony offender sentencing,” and it is specifically concerned with enhancing the penalty that would otherwise follow from a conviction on the underlying criminal offense. In respondent‘s case, for example, his persistent-felony-offender status enhanced the punishment normally associated with a second-degree robbery conviction-at least 5 but not more than 10 years imprisonment-to a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20 years.
The Supreme Court of Kentucky has described the persistent-felony-offender statute:
“There is no additional punishment imposed by a persistent felony offender conviction, merely a more severe punishment. KRS 532.080 does not create or define a criminal offense. It recognizes a status and, in a proceeding separate and apart from the initial trial, fixes a penalty which is to be imposed rather than the one fixed by the jury on the initial trial.” Hardin v. Commonwealth, 573 S. W. 2d 657, 661 (Ky. 1978).
See also Malicoat v. Commonwealth, 637 S. W. 2d 640, 641 (Ky. 1982). Under Kentucky law, the Commonwealth has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt each “element” of the offense of being a first-degree persistent-felony offender. Hon v. Commonwealth, 670 S. W. 2d 851, 853 (Ky. 1984). However,
I believe that had Kentucky chosen to make being a persistent-felony offender a separate crime, as respondent mistakenly believes that it has, Brief for Respondent 12-13, the Commonweаlth would have had the burden affirmatively to prove that the underlying felony convictions were obtained by constitutional means. Under those circumstances, Boykin would not permit the Commonwealth to rely on a silent record. But, because the persistent-felony-offender statute is properly understood to be a sentencing provision, I see no reason why the Commonwealth may not place the burden on the defendant to rebut the presumption of regularity that attaches to the prior convictions. For this reason, I agree that the Court of Appeals has demanded more of the Commonwealth of Kentucky than is constitutionally required.