STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NORMAN TYRELL CATES, Defendant-Appellee.
No. S-1-SC-38989
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
October 24, 2022
2023-NMSC-001
ZAMORA, Justice.
Opinion Number: 2023-NMSC-001. Filing Date: October 24, 2022. APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF HARDING COUNTY, Albert J. Mitchell, Jr., District Judge.
Hector H. Balderas, Attorney General
Maris Veidemanis, Assistant Attorney General
Santa Fe, NM
for Appellant
Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender
Thomas J. Lewis, Assistant Appellate Defender
Santa Fe, NM
for Appellee
ZAMORA, Justice.
I. INTRODUCTION
{1} This matter comes to us on appeal of the district court‘s grant of Defendant Norman Tyrell Cates’ petition for writ of habeas corpus. We consider whether the district court erred by concluding that Defendant, a serious youthful offender serving less than life imprisonment, is eligible to earn meritorious deductions under the Earned Meritorious Deductions Act (EMDA),
{2} We reverse the district court‘s order and remand with instructions to vacate Defendant‘s amended judgment and sentence and to reinstate the original judgment and sentence.
II. BACKGROUND
{3} In 2006, Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder,
{4} During Defendant‘s sentencing hearing, the district court accepted proffers and heard statements regarding Defendant and his offense. Defense counsel requested a sentence of eighteen to twenty years, “with a recommendation of treatment accompanying the judgment and sentence,” but did not request that Defendant be made eligible for meritorious deductions. The State requested a sentence of life. After commenting on the evident brutality and senseless nature of the murder, the district court announced an intent to sentence Defendant to “the maximum penalty of life in prison.” Notwithstanding this verbally expressed intent, the district court entered a written judgment and sentence providing that Defendant would be incarcerated for a fixed-term sentence of thirty years. During the sentencing hearing, the court also expressed an intent to “permit participation in therapeutic amenities during the term of incarceration.” However, the court did not reference the EMDA, and Defendant‘s judgment and sentence is silent as to his eligibility to earn meritorious deductions.
{5} The parties do not explain the discrepancy between the sentencing court‘s oral pronouncement to give a life sentence and its written judgment and sentence giving a thirty-year term sentence. The record fails to reflect, for example, whether the court decided to reduce Defendant‘s sentence before issuing the written judgment and sentence, whether any error was made in preparing the document, or whether there is some other explanation for the discrepancy.
{6} Fourteen years after his sentencing hearing, Defendant filed a habeas petition in the district court seeking to clarify his eligibility to earn meritorious deductions. During his term of incarceration, Defendant has engaged in therapeutic and educational programming, including passing his high school equivalency exam and speaking at community outreach events for at-risk youth. Although the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) kept track of Defendant‘s participation in these programs, Defendant learned that NMCD was not awarding him
{7} In his amended habeas petition, Defendant contended that NMCD had wrongly concluded that he was ineligible to earn meritorious deductions because he was not serving a life sentence. See
{8} Although the State stipulated that Defendant was not serving a life sentence, it nevertheless opposed habeas relief. The State argued that Defendant was not eligible to earn meritorious deductions because the sentencing court had not affirmatively exercised its discretion to grant Defendant eligibility to earn deductions.
{9} The district court held a hearing on Defendant‘s habeas petition and, after hearing arguments, partially granted the petition. Relying on Tafoya, the court concluded that a serious youthful offender sentenced to less than life imprisonment is eligible to earn meritorious deductions and must be considered to have committed a “serious violent offense” under
{10} Accordingly, the habeas court determined that Defendant‘s judgment and sentence rendered him eligible to earn meritorious deductions of up to four days per month. The court also concluded that Defendant was eligible to earn lump-sum credits as provided by
{11} The State timely filed a notice of appeal. We have jurisdiction over this appeal from a grant of a petition for writ of habeas corpus under
III. STANDARD OF REVIEW
{12} We consider whether the district court correctly concluded that Defendant is eligible to earn meritorious deductions within the framework of the EMDA. This is a question of law that we review de novo. Dominguez v. State, 2015-NMSC-014, ¶ 9, 348 P.3d 183 (reiterating that, when reviewing a ruling on a petition for writ of habeas corpus involving questions of law or questions of mixed fact and law, a de novo review assures that this Court maintains its role as arbiter of the law).
IV. DISCUSSION
{13} The authority of a district court to impose a sentence is derived from statute. State v. Chadwick-McNally, 2018-NMSC-018, ¶ 24, 414 P.3d 326. “This limitation on judicial authority reflects the separation of powers notion that it is solely within the province of the Legislature to establish penalties for criminal behavior.” State v. Martinez, 1998-NMSC-023, ¶ 12, 126 N.M. 39, 966 P.2d 747 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Yet a court‘s sentencing authority “is not a purely ministerial task,” and courts possess inherent discretion to fashion an appropriate sentence within the framework of our sentencing laws. Id. ¶ 13.
{14} Under the Criminal Sentencing Act,
{15} Defendant asserts, and the habeas court concluded, that a serious youthful offender sentenced to less than life imprisonment is eligible to earn meritorious deductions under the EMDA, citing our opinion in Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019. According to Defendant, this case presents “essentially the same issues of statutory construction” as Tafoya and thus should “yield the same result,” that is, eligibility to earn up to four days of deductions per month of time served. Alternatively, Defendant contends that the sentencing court was unaware of the possibility that he might be eligible to receive meritorious deductions. Defendant thus suggests that the sentencing court abused its discretion because the judgment and sentence was based on a misunderstanding of law. Defendant also argues that the habeas court properly exercised its discretion in amending the judgment and sentence to provide for his good-time eligibility.
{16} We conclude that a serious youthful offender does not become eligible to earn meritorious deductions solely by virtue of being sentenced to less than life imprisonment. However, in exercising its discretion to sentence a serious youthful offender to less than the mandatory life sentence of an adult, a sentencing court may specify that the offender is eligible to earn deductions within the existing framework of the EMDA. Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 21. The district court did not expressly exercise this discretion in sentencing Defendant; therefore, he is not eligible to earn meritorious deductions. We further reject Defendant‘s assertion that the district court abused its discretion by not expressly addressing Defendant‘s good-time eligibility, and we explain that the habeas court did not have discretion to amend Defendant‘s judgment and sentence to provide for this eligibility.
A. A Serious Youthful Offender Is Eligible to Earn Meritorious Deductions Only if the Sentencing Court Expressly Confers Such Eligibility
1. Overview of the EMDA, the Criminal Sentencing Act, and Tafoya
{17} The EMDA is “a detailed set of guidelines for both the courts and the [NMCD] to administer in the ultimate determination of a prisoner‘s eligibility for good-time reductions from [the prisoner‘s] period of confinement.” State v. Rudolfo, 2008-NMSC-036, ¶ 35, 144 N.M. 305, 187 P.3d 170. Under the EMDA, eligible prisoners may earn deductions of either a maximum of four or thirty days per month, “upon recommendation by the classification supervisor, based upon the prisoner‘s active participation in approved programs and the quality of the prisoner‘s participation in those approved programs.”
{18} The EMDA enumerates fourteen offenses as per se serious violent offenses, including second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.
{19} “Courts generally have a limited role in administering the EMDA.” Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 8 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). A sentencing court typically must only determine “which offenses are to be considered ‘serious violent offenses’ for good time purposes.” Rudolfo, 2008-NMSC-036, ¶ 37. After sentencing, “the deduction of good time credits from an inmate‘s sentence is a discretionary matter entrusted not to the courts but to the administrators of the [NMCD] or the county jails.” State v. Aqui, 1986-NMSC-048, ¶ 9, 104 N.M. 345, 721 P.2d 771, holding limited by Brooks v. Shanks, 1994-NMSC-113, ¶¶ 8-9, 118 N.M. 716, 885 P.2d 637. We have recognized that
{20} A prisoner serving a life sentence is ineligible for, and cannot earn, meritorious deductions under the EMDA.
{21} However, the Criminal Sentencing Act provides that a serious youthful offender convicted of first-degree murder may be sentenced to less than the mandatory life term of an adult.
{22} In Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, we considered this interplay between the EMDA and the serious youthful offender sentencing scheme in the context of a serious youthful offender who was expressly made eligible for meritorious deductions at sentencing. The defendant in Tafoya, a serious youthful offender, was sentenced to a term of less than life imprisonment. Id. ¶¶ 1, 4. The defendant‘s sentence expressly authorized NMCD to “award [the d]efendant good time credit in accordance with New Mexico law.” Id. ¶ 4. Because NMCD interpreted this language to mean that the defendant was eligible for deductions of up to thirty days per month, the state filed a motion to clarify the sentence. Id. Following a hearing, the district court clarified that the defendant was eligible to earn up to four days per month. Id. The defendant appealed, arguing that the EMDA granted him eligibility of up to thirty days
{23} The question presented in Tafoya was whether the district court could limit the defendant‘s maximum good-time eligibility. Id. ¶¶ 1-2. The Court answered this question in the affirmative, concluding that the district court had discretion to specify the maximum amount of deductions for which the defendant would be eligible. Id. ¶ 2. The Court rejected the argument that the defendant was eligible to earn up to thirty days per month as technically a nonviolent offender. Id. ¶ 15. While noting that this interpretation was supported by the plain meaning of the statutory text, the Court stated that “[c]lassifying first degree murder by a serious youthful offender as a per se nonviolent offense is the sort of absurd result for which we forego applying the plain meaning test.”2 Id.
{24} The Tafoya Court also rejected the State‘s argument that
{25} “Reading the EMDA and the serious youthful offender sentencing statutes in harmony,” and noting the rehabilitative policies expressed by both enactments, the Tafoya Court reasoned that “the discretion granted to judges in sentencing serious youthful offenders would be severely curtailed if serious youthful offenders were strictly prohibited from earning good time credits during imprisonment.” Id. ¶ 20. The Court also noted its statement in State v. Trujillo, 2002-NMSC-005, ¶ 66, 131 N.M. 709, 42 P.3d 814, that a sentence authorizing a serious youthful offender to earn meritorious deductions was “authorized by statute.” Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 17 (quoting Trujillo, 2002-NMSC-005, ¶ 66). The Court construed the Legislature‘s silence on the issue since Trujillo as indicative of legislative acquiescence. Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 17.
{26} The Tafoya Court thus held that
the explicit [l]egislative grant of discretion to the district court in sentencing [the d]efendant as a serious youthful offender implies the discretion to award serious youthful offenders good time credit eligibility within the existing framework of the EMDA, that is, zero, four, or thirty days good time credit eligibility per month.
Id. ¶ 21. Critically, the Court did not rely on the EMDA for this holding; it
underscore[d] that this discretion is based not on the district court‘s defining first degree murder committed by a serious youthful offender as a serious violent offense
or a nonviolent offense for purposes of the EMDA, but rather on the discretion our Legislature granted sentencing courts in imposing a sentence that will best contribute to the rehabilitation of the child.
Id. In other words, the Court determined that the authority to grant good-time eligibility to serious youthful offenders is an incident of the district court‘s discretionary sentencing authority, which it may use to advance the rehabilitative purposes of both the EMDA and the juvenile sentencing scheme. Id. ¶¶ 20-21; see also Martinez, 1998-NMSC-023, ¶ 13 (recognizing that “courts inherently possess ample right to exercise reasonable, that is, judicial, discretion to enable them to wisely exert their authority” in sentencing a defendant (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).
{27} Tafoya also explicitly declined to define first-degree murder as either a nonviolent or serious violent offense, further underscoring that the authority to make a serious youthful offender eligible to earn meritorious deductions does not emanate from the EMDA. 2010-NMSC-019, ¶¶ 15, 21. Indeed, in affirming the district court, the Court expressly relied upon the fact that “the district court did not define the crime which [the d]efendant committed as a serious violent offense; rather, the district court determined that [the d]efendant should be eligible to earn good time credits during his imprisonment as an exercise of discretion to increase [the d]efendant‘s chance of rehabilitation.” Id. ¶ 22.
2. A serious youthful offender‘s eligibility to earn meritorious deductions may be authorized only through an express exercise of discretion by the sentencing court
{28} Defendant contends, and the habeas court concluded, that Tafoya recognizes that a serious youthful offender serving less than a life sentence is eligible to earn meritorious deductions under the EMDA. But Tafoya does not support this contention. To the contrary, the Tafoya Court made clear that a court possesses the discretionary authority to award a serious youthful offender “zero ... good time credit eligibility per month.” 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 21. Yet there is no category of offense under the EMDA that addresses the award of zero meritorious deductions, reaffirming that the Court recognized that the decision to award a serious youthful offender good-time eligibility is fully discretionary and does not arise from the EMDA itself. The defendant in Tafoya was eligible to earn up to four days per month of meritorious deductions because the sentencing court in that case expressly exercised its discretion to award the defendant this eligibility. Id. ¶ 4. Tafoya does not address the situation presented here, where the sentencing court was silent as to whether Defendant would be eligible to earn meritorious deductions.
{29} Thus, we must consider whether a judgment and sentence providing that a serious youthful offender will serve less than life imprisonment but not expressly stating that the offender will be eligible to earn meritorious deductions, nevertheless makes the offender eligible to earn deductions pursuant to the EMDA and the Criminal Sentencing Act. We conclude that it does not.
{30} Neither the EMDA nor the Criminal Sentencing Act expresses an intent to make a serious youthful offender sentenced to less than life imprisonment eligible to earn meritorious deductions in the absence of the district court‘s affirmative authorization of this good-time eligibility. Under the Criminal Sentencing Act, a serious youthful offender convicted of first-degree murder is, by statutory default, subject to a life sentence for his or her capital offense.
{31} If not given the statutory default life sentence, the Legislature has provided that “[t]he court may sentence the offender to less than, but not exceeding, the mandatory term for an adult.”
{32} The Legislature‘s decision to grant discretion to district courts in sentencing serious youthful offenders is grounded in the unique considerations that arise in the context of juvenile sentencing. Cf. Ira v. Janecka, 2018-NMSC-027, ¶¶ 20-23, 419 P.3d 161 (identifying “three themes regarding the constitutionality of juvenile sentencing” and observing that juveniles may have more potential for reform than adults). However, unlike other juvenile defendants, a serious youthful offender is not afforded the protections of the Delinquency Act,
{33} The EMDA mirrors this distinction between capital and noncapital offenses.
{34} A serious youthful offender‘s life sentence may be reduced only through an express exercise of discretion by the sentencing court.
B. The District Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in Sentencing Defendant Without Eligibility to Earn Meritorious Deductions
{35} Defendant also argues that the sentencing court abused its discretion because the court wrongly assumed that it could not authorize good-time eligibility. Defendant asserts that the district court did not “have the benefit of this Court‘s Tafoya analysis” when he was sentenced in 2006, and thus was unaware of the possibility that an offender in Defendant‘s position might be eligible to earn meritorious deductions. Defendant states, “Without the guidance of Tafoya, the sentencing court misunderstood the law and failed to give due consideration to [Defendant‘s] status as a [serious] youthful offender.”
{36} As we have explained, Tafoya stands for the proposition that a district court may, in its discretion, authorize a serious youthful offender to earn meritorious deductions. But the sentencing court is not required to explicitly disavow this sentencing possibility. See State v. Ferry, 2018-NMSC-004, ¶ 2, 409 P.3d 918 (“Discretion is the authority of a district court judge to select among multiple correct outcomes.”);
{37} Further, we will not speculate about what rules of law the sentencing court considered at the time of sentencing. We cannot say, as a matter of law, that the district court in 2006 was unaware of the possibility that it could, in its discretion, make Defendant eligible for meritorious deductions. As noted in Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 17, we recognized in 2002 that a judgment and sentence providing that a serious youthful offender could earn meritorious deductions was “authorized by statute.” Trujillo, 2002-NMSC-005, ¶ 66. Indeed, the sentencing courts in Trujillo and Tafoya expressly awarded good-time eligibility to the serious youthful offenders in those cases before we addressed the issue. Trujillo, 2002-NMSC-005, ¶ 7; Tafoya, 2010-NMSC-019, ¶ 4. Moreover, any factual dispute over the extent of the sentencing court‘s legal knowledge or understanding was not preserved, and we are in no position to rule on the issue. See
{38} Finally, Defendant‘s contention that the sentencing court did not give due consideration to his status as a serious youthful offender is directly refuted by the record on appeal, which demonstrates that the court was well apprised of Defendant‘s juvenile status and expressly considered his age in determining his sentence.
C. The Habeas Court Did Not Have Discretion to Amend Defendant‘s Lawful Judgment and Sentence
{39} Defendant suggests that, in partially granting his petition for habeas corpus, the habeas court was properly exercising the discretion afforded to it under Tafoya. However, Tafoya does not recognize that a court has discretion to amend a final judgment and sentence on a petition for habeas corpus. As the habeas court itself clarified with the parties, and Defendant conceded, the court did not have authority to change the decision of the sentencing court; instead, it was seeking to determine the legal effect of the sentence that was already imposed.
{40}
[Their] custody or restraint is, or will be, in violation of the constitution or laws of
the State of New Mexico or of the United States; that the district court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence; or that the sentence was illegal or in excess of the maximum authorized by law or is otherwise subject to collateral attack.
{41} Defendant does not cite any other authority that would allow the court to amend his judgment and sentence in these proceedings. Nor are we aware of any authority that would allow it to do so. Our sentencing scheme requires a district court to fashion an appropriate sentence at a sentencing hearing held within a reasonable time after the adjudication of guilt.
{42} As the habeas court had no authority to amend Defendant‘s legal judgment and sentence, it erred by ordering that the judgment and sentence be amended.
V. CONCLUSION
{43} We conclude that Defendant‘s sentence for a term of years, rather than life, for first-degree murder as a serious youthful offender did not automatically make him eligible to earn meritorious deductions. In order for a serious youthful offender convicted of first-degree murder to be eligible to earn meritorious deductions, the sentencing court must explicitly grant such eligibility. The sentencing court made no such provision here, and the habeas court erred by ordering that Defendant‘s judgment and sentence be amended to afford him good-time eligibility. We therefore reverse the order of the district court granting Defendant‘s habeas petition. We remand this matter to the district court with instructions to vacate the amended judgment and sentence and to reinstate the original judgment and sentence.
{44} IT IS SO ORDERED.
BRIANA H. ZAMORA, Justice
WE CONCUR:
C. SHANNON BACON, Chief Justice
MICHAEL E. VIGIL, Justice
DAVID K. THOMSON, Justice
JULIE J. VARGAS, Justice