VEAL v. THE STATE.
S17A1758
Supreme Court of Georgia
February 5, 2018
303 Ga. 18
BENHAM, JUSTICE.
FINAL COPY; Murdеr. Fulton Superior Court. Before Judge Markle.
This is Robert Veal’s second appeal of his convictions for crimes committed in the course of two armed robbеries on November 22, 2010. See Veal v. State, 298 Ga. 691 (784 SE2d 403) (2016) (“Veal I”). After a jury found Veal guilty of malice murder and other offenses charged in the indictment against him, the trial court sentenced him to imprisonment fоr life without parole (“LWOP”) for malice murder; six consecutive life sentences for rape, aggravated sodomy, and four armed robbery convictions; and sentences totaling 60 consecutive years for other convictions involved in the case. Id. at 692 n. 1. Veal argued in his first appeal that because he was under 18 years оf age at the time of his crimes, his LWOP sentence was improperly imposed. This Court agreed since the trial court made no determination on the record with respect to whether Veal is irreparably corrupt or permanently incorrigible, as necessary to put him in the narrow class of juvenile murderers for whom an LWOP sentеnce is proportional under the Eighth Amendment as interpreted in Miller [v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (132 SCt 2455, 183 LE2d 407) (2012)] as refined by Montgomery [v. Louisiana, ___ U.S. ___ (136 SCt 718, 193 LE2d 599) (2016)]. Veal I, supra at 703. Accordingly, we vacated the LWOP sentence and remanded the case for resentencing on that count. Id.
At the sentencing hearing the trial court conducted on remand, the State announced it would forgo seeking LWOP and, instead, asked the court to impose two additional consecutive life with parole sentences (for the malice murder conviction and one of the armed robbery counts that the trial court previously incorrectly merged with the murder conviction, see Veal I), in addition to the other consecutive life sentences already imposed. Veal introducеd published life expectancy tables to support his assertion that the recommended sentence would exceed his life expectancy. The trial сourt, however, rejected Veal’s assertion that this would amount to a de facto LWOP, and imposed the State’s recommended sentence without making an individualizеd determination regarding the appropriateness of the sentence pursuant to Miller. The new cumulative sentence amounts to eight consecutive life sentences plus 60 years.
1. Citing
Appellant acknowledges that he is asking this Court to expand the holdings of the Miller and Montgomery Supreme Court opinions. As noted by this Court in Veal I, those cases read together create a substantive rule that before an LWOP sentence may be imposed on one who was a juvenile at the time the crime was committed, the sentencing court must conduct a hearing to detеrmine if that person is one of the exceptionally rare juveniles for whom such a sentence is appropriate because of “a specific determination that he is irreparably corrupt.” Veal I, supra, 298 Ga. at 702. But neither Miller nor Montgomery addressed the imposition of aggregate life-with-parole sentences for multiple convictions or whether sentences other than LWOP require a specific determination that the sentence is appropriate given the offender’s youth and its attendant
Because the Supreme Court has not expanded its mandate that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment as it applies to juvenile offenders requires a sentencer to сonsider a juvenile’s youth and its attendant characteristics before imposing a sentence other than LWOP, this Court will not do so.2 Although appellant mentions “the analogous provision of the Georgia Constitution” in his enumerations of error, he offers no argument or citation of authority whatsoever regarding the application of the Georgia Constitution to the case. We therefore deem any state constitutional claim abandoned. See Supreme Court Rule 22.
2. Appellant also asserts the new sentence violates the Supreme Court’s ban on LWOP sentences for juveniles for non-homicide convictions, as set forth in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (III) (B) (130 SCt 2011, 176 LE2d 825) (2010). Again, appellant asserts that the new sentence imposed by the trial court on remand amounts to a de facto LWOP sentence when the service time required by Georgia law is compared to appellant’s life expectancy. Even though appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder conviction, appellant argues that the consecutive life sentences for the non-homicide convictions result in what he claims to be an unconstitutional aggregate sentеnce. He argues that the sentence imposed on remand must be vacated and he must be resentenced to a term that does not result in a de facto LWOP sеntence. We reject this challenge for the reasons set forth in Division 1.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
Decided February 5, 2018.
Murder. Fulton Superior Court. Before Judge Markle.
Stephen M. Reba, for appellant.
Paul L. Howard, District Attorney, Joshua D. Morrison, Lyndsey H. Rudder, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Matthew M. Youn, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.