State v. BonnerState v. Bonner
This appeal requires us to consider whether an error in fading to consider the alternative nonprison sanctions provided for in
FACTS
This is a consolidated appeal arising from sentences imposed in two cases. In both cases, Tabitha L. Bonner committed the crimes while on felony bond.
In one case (No. 05CR553I), Bonner pleaded no contest to two counts of forgeiy in violation of
At sentencing, Bonner requested she be given probation under the supervision of community corrections. The district court denied this request and invoked the special sentencing rule in
In the second case (No. 08CR395I), Bonner pleaded no contest to attempted possession of cocaine in violation of
The sentencing hearing in this case, which was held approximately 1 week after the sentencing hearing in the forgery case, went much the same as the prior hearing. Bonner again requested probation, and the district court again invoked 21-4603d(f), imposed the standard prison sentence in the 4-E grid block, and failed to consider the alternative nonprison sanctions provided for in 21-4603d(g). (
Further, at the sentencing hearing for the attempted possession of cocaine conviction, the district court awarded attorney fees in an amount to be determined by the BIDS fee schedule. In the journal entry, the district court awarded $525 for BIDS attorney fees and the $100 BIDS administrative fee.
On direct appeal, Bonner argued the district court was required to apply
With regard to the forgery convictions, the Court of Appeals recognized that 2005 Supp.
Regarding Bonner’s conviction for attempted possession of cocaine, the Court of Appeals observed that
Regarding the BIDS attorney fees, the Court of Appeals observed that
State v. Robinson,
As for the BIDS administrative fee ordered in each journal entry of judgment, the Court of Appeals rejected the notion that the district court was required to apply the
Robinson
analysis at sentencing. The Court of Appeals pointed out that in
State v. Hawkins,
Finally, concerning Bonner’s contention that the district court erred by imposing a
Bonner now petitions this court for review. Because the Court of Appeals ruled in her favor on the issue regarding the BIDS attorney fees, Bonner does not raise that issue in her petition for review. She raises all other issues, however, and we granted review under
Standard of Review
The issues Bonner raises require us to interpret various sentencing statutes. Interpretation of a statute is a question of law, and the appellate court’s standard of review is unlimited.
State v. Gonzales,
Our rules of statutory interpretation are well known. As we recently stated:
“When a court is called upon to interpret a statute, the intent of the legislature governs if that intent can be ascertained. The legislature is presumed to have expressed its intent through the language it enacted. [Citation omitted.] For this reason, when the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, courts need not resort to statutory construction. [Citation omitted.] If a statute is subject to more than one interpretation, however, a court attempting to discern legislative intent may employ rules of statutory construction and look to the historical background of the enactment, the circumstances attending its passage, the purposes to be accomplished, and the effects the statute may have under the various constructions suggested. [Citations omitted.]” State v. Phillips,289 Kan. 28 , 32,210 P.3d 93 (2009).
See
State v. Ellmaker,
As a general rule, this court strictly construes a criminal statute in favor of the accused, which simply means that the court reads words with their ordinaiy meaning. The court decides any reasonable doubt about a word’s meaning in favor of the accused.
State v. Kleypas,
Consideration of Alternative Nonprison Sanctions
First, Bonner contends the district court erred in failing to consider alternative nonprison sanctions before imposing incarceration in each criminal case. She argues that
“shall consider placement of the defendant in the Labette correctional conservation camp, conservation camps established by the secretary of corrections pursuant toK.S.A. 75-52,127, and amendment thereto or a community intermediate sanction center. Pursuant to this paragraph die defendant shall not be sentenced to imprisonment if space is available in a conservation camp or a community intermediate sanction center and the defendant meets all of the conservation camp’s or a community intermediate sanction center’s placement criteria unless the court states on the record the reasons for not placing the defendant in a conservation camp or a community intermediate sanction center.” (Emphasis added.)
Our courts have construed the statutory language “shall consider placement” to be mandatory. See,
e.g., State v. Wiegand,
1. “Prior to imposing a dispositional departure for a defendant whose offense is classified in the presumptive nonprison grid block of either sentencing guideline grid,”
2. “[P]rior to sentencing a defendant to incarceration whose offense is classified in grid blocks 5-H, 5-1 or 6-G of the sentencing guidelines grid for nondrug crimes or in grid blocks 3-E, 3-F, 3-G, 3-H or 3-1 of the sentencing guidelines grid for drug crimes,”
3. “[P]rior to sentencing a defendant to incarceration whose offense is classified in grid blocks 4-E or 4-F of the sentencing guideline grid for drug crimes and whose offense does not meet the requirements of [K.S.A. 21-4729 ], and amendments thereto,”
4. “[P]rior to revocation of a nonprison sanction of a defendant whose offense is classified in grid blocks 4-E or 4-F of the sentencing guideline grid for drug crimes and whose offense does not meet the requirements of [K.S.A. 21-4729 ], and amendments thereto, or”
5. “[P]rior to revocation of a nonprison sanction of a defendant whose offense is classified in the presumptive nonprison grid block of either sentencing guideline grid or grid blocks 5-H, 5-1 or 6-G of the sentencing guidelines grid for nondrug crimes or in grid blocks 3-E, 3-F, 3-G, 3-H or 3-1 of the sentencing guidelines grid for drug crimes . . . (Emphasis added.)K.S.A. 2006 Supp. 21-4603d(g) .
This court recently determined that the word “or” in subsection (g) is to be read as a disjunctive term rather than a conjunctive term.
Bee,
In this appeal, two of the circumstances potentially apply — the first and the fourth. Because 21-4603d applies differently in each of Bonner’s criminal cases, we will discuss the forgery convictions separately from the attempted possession of cocaine conviction.
Forgery Case
The two counts of forgery in case No. 05CR553I were level 8 nondrug crimes. With a criminal history score of E, Bonner’s conviction fell into a presumptive probation block on the sentencing guidelines nondrug grid. The plain language of
This was not so in Bonner’s forgery case. Under the facts, prison was not a dispositional departure because the two counts of forgery were committed while Bonner was on felony bond.
“When a new felony is committed while the offender is on release for a felony pursuant to the provisions of article 28 of chapter 22 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated, a new sentence may be imposed pursuant to the consecutive sentencing requirements ofK.S.A. 21-4608, and amendments thereto, and the court may sentence the offender to imprisonment for the new conviction, even when the new crime of conviction otherwise presumes a nonprison sentence. In this event, imposition of a prison sentence for the new crime does not constitute a departure.” (Emphasis added.)
This provision clearly gives the district court the discretion to impose prison when probation is presumed if an offender commits a new crime while on felony bond. And while the decision is dis
cretionary, if the court chooses to impose a prison sentence for the new crime, the sentence “does not constitute a departure.” This is exactly what occurred in Bonner s forgery case. Moreover, no other circumstance identified in
Thus, the district court did not err in failing to consider alternative nonprison sanctions in Bonner’s forgery case, and we agree with the Court of Appeals’ reasoning on this point.
Attempted. Possession of Cocaine Case
The one count of attempted possession of cocaine in case No. 06CR395I was a severity level 4 drug crime. With Bonner’s criminal histoiy score of E, Bonner’s conviction fell into a presumptive probation block on the sentencing guidelines drug grid. Because the crime was committed while Bonner was on felony bond, the district court had authority pursuant to
Nevertheless, a different circumstance identified in
The Court of Appeals recognized the applicability of this circumstance but concluded that because the sentence was not a dispo-sitional departure, the alternative sentencing did not apply. In other words, the Court of Appeals failed to read the “or” in the statute as a disjunctive term and, therefore, erroneously held that alternative nonprison sanctions did not have to be considered by the district court if tire first — the dispositional departure — circumstance did not apply.
This application of the statute is contrary to the clear language of the provision. See
Bee,
This conclusion is bolstered by the fact that
The Court of Appeals erred in applying the identical rationale to both the forgery case and the attempted possession of cocaine case. The district court should have considered alternative non-prison sanctions with respect to Bonner s conviction for attempted possession of cocaine.
Nevertheless, this error does not necessarily require reversal. See
Wiegand,
In
Wiegand,
the district court considered a placement at a conservation camp but did not consider placement at a CISC. We held that consideration of both alternatives was required by the following sentence in
“Pursuant to this paragraph the defendant shall not be sentenced to imprisonment if space is available in a conservation camp or a community intermediate sanction center and the defendant meets all of the conservation camp’s or a community intermediate sanction center’s placement criteria unless the court states on the record the reasons for not placing the defendant in a conservation camp or a community intermediate sanction center.”
Despite the error resulting from the district court’s failure to consider both alternatives, we did not vacate the sentence because the error was of no practical consequence. In reaching this conclusion, we took judicial notice pursuant to
“ ‘A community intermediate sanction center was never opened pursuant to [K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 21-4603d ] and there are no community intermediate sanction centers within the meaning ofK.S.A. 2000 Supp. 21-4603d (nor any of its preceding versions) operating at this time in the State of Kansas. Therefore, there is neither space available nor placement criteria for community intermediate sanction centers for purposes of potential sentencing dispositions pursuant toK.S.A. 2000 Supp. 21-4603d .’ 22 Kan. Reg. 835 (2003).” Wiegand,275 Kan. at 847 .
Although there was not a CISC in existence, we noted that placement at Labette was an available alternative. Consequently, we
held a “sentencing court shall consider placement at Labette. If, in the future, a CISC or other conservation camp is established, information must be presented to the court regarding the placement option.”
Wiegand,
Applying Wiegand to this case, no CISC alternatives were presented at sentencing. Regardless, under Wiegand the district court was required to consider placement at Labette.
Circumstances have since changed, however. On June 25, 2009, the Department of Corrections issued a “Notice Concerning Cessation of Operations of Labette Correctional Conservation Camps and Suspension of Intensive Substance Abuse Treatment Programming in Kansas Department of Corrections Facilities.” 28 Kan. Reg. 1026 (2009). The notice stated in part:
“In regard to the former subject of this Notice, due to lack of appropriated funding for its operation in Fiscal Year 2010, the Labette Community Correctional Conservation Camp for males (more commonly known as the ‘Labette County male boot camp’) shall cease to operate as of June 30,2009. It shall not thenceforth be available in practice as a sentencing disposition for male offenders who are subject to possible placement therein by sentencing courts pursuant toK.S.A. 21-4603d(a)(5) or (g).
“This Notice will further serve to confirm that placement of offenders in the Labette Correctional Conservation Camp for females (more commonly known as the ‘Labette County female boot camp’) has already been effectively curtailed in Fiscal Year 2009 due to a budgetary rescission, and likewise, that said facility did not receive appropriate funding for operation in Fiscal Year 2010, and will therefore also not be available in practice as a sentencing disposition for female offenders.
“This Notice is provided for the guidance of Kansas courts, prosecutors, members of the defense bar, and the public in regard to making appropriate alternative sentencing dispositions for those offenders subject to the provisions ofK.S.A. 21-4603d(a) & (g),K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4704(p) ,and 21-4705(1), as amended.” 28 Kan. Reg. at 1026-27 (2009).
In light of this notice, before oral arguments in this case we issued an order the purpose of which was to “afford the parties reasonable opportunity to present information relevant to the propriety of taking” judicial notice that Labette had closed. K.S.A. 60-
412(d) (judicial notice in proceedings subsequent to trial); see
Hence, even though
Simply put, a failure to comply with 21-4603d(g) is not reversible error if none of the alternative nonprison sanctions listed in the statute is available. Consequently, we conclude the error in failing to consider placement at Labette does not require us to vacate the sentence in case No. 08CR395I or to remand for resentencing.
BIDS Application Fee
Next, we consider Bonner’s complaint that the journal entry of judgment in each case required her to pay the $100 BIDS application fee when the court had not orally announced the fee at the sentencing hearing or considered at sentencing the financial burden of the fee. Bonner acknowledges that she did not raise any objections regarding the BIDS application fee before the district court.
The application fee is provided for in
“Any defendant entitled to counsel pursuant toK.S.A. 22-4503, and amendments thereto shall pay an application fee in the amount of . . . $100 ... to the clerk of the district court. If it appears to the satisfaction of the court that payment of the application fee will impose manifest hardship on the defendant, the court may waive payment of all or part of tire application fee.”
This court has recently rejected similar claims pertaining to the BIDS application fee. As the Court of Appeals noted, in
Hawkins
this court established that the district court assesses the application fee when a defendant applies for court-appointed counsel and that determining whether the fee would cause manifest hardship is “a minor extension of the analysis which the district court is already performing when assessing eligibility for court-appointed counsel.”
Hawkins,
More recently, this court held that an order to pay an application fee is merely an imposition of costs and is neither punitive nor part of a sentence. Because the defendant’s ability to pay the fee is considered at the time the defendant submits an application for appointed counsel, the district court is not required to make further findings at sentencing to validate the assessment of the application fee.
State v. Phillips,
In these cases, we reiterated that the district court should determine the propriety of imposing the application fee at the time of the initial determination to appoint counsel. Further, this de
termination does not require any subsequent findings by the district court at sentencing. E.g.,
Phillips,
Here, in neither case did Bonner ever raise the issue of her ability to pay before the district court, and there is nothing in the record indicating that the district court failed to comply with
The Court of Appeals correctly affirmed the BIDS application fee.
Appbendi Issue
Finally, Bonner contends that her constitutional rights under
Apprendi v. New Jersey,
This court has repeatedly rejected this claim as controlled by
State v. Ivory,
The decisions of the Court of Appeals and the district court are affirmed on all issues that are subject to our review, which did not include the Court of Appeals order vacating the imposition of BIDS attorney fees in both cases.