People v. Smith
People v. Smith
Opinion
¶ 1 Following a bench trial, defendant Zachary Smith was convicted of being an armed habitual criminal (AHC) and for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon (UUWF). Mr. Smith was sentenced on the AHC charge to a prison term of six years, followed by three years of mandatory supervised release (MSR), and on the UUWF charge to a concurrent sentence of two years. On appeal, Mr. Smith argues that we must vacate his AHC conviction because one of the predicate convictions for that offense was for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon (AUUW), under a statutory provision later held by the Illinois Supreme Court to be facially unconstitutional. Mr. Smith alternatively asks us to correct his mittimus because-under the *962 one-act, one-crime rule-he cannot be convicted of both AHC and UUWF based on the same act of possessing a firearm. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Mr. Smith's AHC conviction and vacate his UUWF conviction.
¶ 2 BACKGROUND
¶ 3 Mr. Smith was charged in this case with one count of AHC-premised on his prior convictions for AUUW (case No. 09 CR 16524) and UUWF (case No. 07 CR 12576)-and three counts of UUWF. At his bench trial, the State introduced certified copies of both prior convictions. The State also presented the testimony of two Chicago police officers, who testified that on the evening of October 25, 2013, they entered an apartment to investigate a reported domestic battery and observed Mr. Smith with a gun in his hand. The officers arrested Mr. Smith and advised him of his Miranda rights. According to the officers, Mr. Smith explained to them that he was holding the gun because he thought the officers were members of his ex-girlfriend's family coming to seek revenge against him for having battered her.
¶ 4 Two witnesses testified for the defense. Mr. Smith's ex-girlfriend, Lakeisha Horton, testified that there was a party at her apartment on the afternoon of October 25, 2013. According to Ms. Horton, a fight broke out at the party, and she threatened to call the police. Those attending the party fled, leaving some of their possessions behind. When Mr. Smith later arrived to collect some clothing he had left at the apartment, he brought another woman with him, angering Ms. Horton and causing her to falsely report that he had battered her. Ms. Horton testified that there was a gun on the floor by the garbage can when officers arrived in response to her call, but it did not belong to Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith's girlfriend, Laquita Handy, testified that she was the woman who accompanied Mr. Smith to Ms. Horton's apartment to retrieve his clothing that day and, to her knowledge, he did not have a weapon with him at that time.
¶ 5 The trial court found the testimony of the officers to be more credible than that of the defense witnesses and found Mr. Smith guilty as charged. The court denied Mr. Smith's post-trial motion and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment and three years of MSR on the AHC count, merged the remaining counts into a single count of UUWF, and sentenced him to a concurrent two-year sentence on that count. This appeal followed.
¶ 6 JURISDICTION
¶ 7 The trial court sentenced Mr. Smith on May 7, 2015, and he filed his notice of appeal the same day. We therefore have jurisdiction pursuant to article VI, section 6, of the Illinois Constitution ( Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, § 6 ) and Illinois Supreme Court Rules 603 and 606, governing appeals from final judgments of conviction in criminal cases (Ill. S. Ct. Rs. 603, 606 (eff. Feb. 6, 2013)).
¶ 8 ANALYSIS
¶ 9 A. Predicate Conviction
¶ 10 On appeal, Mr. Smith argues that his AHC conviction must be vacated because one of the two predicate convictions the State relied on to support that charge was pursuant to a statutory provision later held to be facially unconstitutional and thus void ab initio .
¶ 11 To support a conviction for AHC, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant possessed a firearm after having been convicted two or more times of certain enumerated offenses, including AUUW and UUWF. 720 ILCS 5/24-1.7(a)(2) (West 2012). One of Mr. Smith's two prior convictions was his 2009 conviction for AUUW, which he says
*963
was under the section of the Criminal Code of 1961 that prohibited the carrying of an "uncased, loaded, and immediately accessible" firearm outside the home. 720 ILCS 5/24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) (West 2008). In
People v. Aguilar
,
¶ 12 Recently, in
People v. McFadden
,
¶ 13 The
McFadden
court did not agree. Noting that its own precedent applying the void
ab initio
doctrine did not resolve the question, it looked to the United States Supreme Court's decision in
Lewis v. United States
,
¶ 14 Like the defendant in
McFadden
, Mr. Smith has not sought to vacate his prior AUUW conviction, but contends that it cannot properly serve as a predicate offense for a later conviction. Mr. Smith argues that we should not follow
McFadden
because it is inconsistent with the United States Supreme Court's decisions
*964
in
Montgomery v. Louisiana
, 577 U.S. ----,
¶ 15 For the reasons discussed below, we agree with the State-and with the other panels of this court that have considered this issue-that we are bound by precedent to affirm Mr. Smith's AHC conviction. There is no doubt that the holding in this case and others like it extends the reach of McFadden and greatly increases the collateral consequences of a constitutionally invalid criminal conviction. We join the other members of this court who have recognized that this inequitable result calls out for a legislative remedy.
¶ 16 Whether a conviction may properly serve as a predicate offense is a question of law, which we review
de novo
.
People v. O'Neal
,
¶ 17 Mr. Smith attacks the holding in these cases on two fronts. First, he insists that the United States Supreme Court's decisions in
Montgomery
and
Siebold
require us to disregard
McFadden
. In
Montgomery
, the Court held that the prohibition on mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders established in
Miller v. Alabama
,
¶ 18 We do not agree that the holding in
McFadden
is precluded or limited by either
Montgomery
or
Siebold
. As we have noted before, our supreme court was well aware of those cases when it issued its opinion in
McFadden
. See
McGee
,
¶ 19 Presenting a more difficult question, Mr. Smith also contends that the AHC statute, which requires the State to prove the existence of two specific qualifying convictions, is qualitatively different from both the UUWF statute at issue in
McFadden
and the federal felon-in-possession statute in
Lewis
, which require only proof of a defendant's status as a felon to make the act of possessing a firearm illegal. Mr. Smith contends that the AHC statute is more like the penalty-enhancing recidivist statute at issue in
United States v. Bryant
, 579 U.S. ----, ----,
¶ 20 The premise for both the Supreme Court's decision in
Lewis
and our supreme court's decision in
McFadden
was that the UUWF statute and the federal felon-in-possession statute were different from general recidivist statutes.
McFadden
,
¶ 21 We agree with Mr. Smith that the AHC statute is quite different from the statutes in
McFadden
and
Lewis
. A defendant in an AHC case is already "disabled" from having a gun by virtue of a first
*966
felony. The second felony required by the statute does not result in the imposition of any new disability; it simply increases-significantly-the criminal sanction used to enforce the disability. Here, Mr. Smith, who was already disqualified from possessing a gun because of his first qualifying felony conviction, now faces a Class X sentence based solely on his prior AUUW conviction, which the State does not dispute is constitutionally invalid under
Aguilar
. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to conclude that the invalid conviction is relied on for anything other than to "enhance punishment," something the
Lewis
Court made clear is still prohibited under
Burgett
.
¶ 22 The problem with Mr. Smith's reliance on
Burgett
and its progeny, however, is that the rule stated in those cases was limited some time ago by the Supreme Court, as it explained in
Custis v. United States
,
¶ 23 Of course, just because something is constitutional does not mean that it is what our legislature intended. But on that score, we are bound by our supreme court's construction of the relevant statutory language in
McFadden
. There, the court concluded from the legislature's use of the past tense in the phrase "has been convicted" ( 720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(a) (West 2008)) that "[n]othing on the face of the [UUWF] statute suggests any intent to limit the language to only those persons whose prior felony convictions are not later subject to vacatur."
McFadden
,
¶ 24 In sum,
McFadden
and
Custis
control the result in this case. Although Mr. Smith's arguments raise important distinctions between the AHC statute at issue in this case and the UUWF statute at issue in
McFadden
, we are not at liberty to reach a different result in this case based on those distinctions. We are constrained on the one hand by the
McFadden
court's interpretation of the legislative text and, on the other, by limits placed on the
Burgett
line of cases by the United States Supreme Court in
Custis
. See
*967
Blumenthal v. Brewer
,
¶ 25 As Mr. Smith acknowledges in his reply brief, his alternative request, that we hold this matter in abeyance pending the United States Supreme Court's disposition of the petition for a writ of
certiorari
filed in
McFadden
, is now moot, as that petition was denied on June 26, 2017.
People v. McFadden
,
¶ 26 Although we agree with our colleagues that evidence of a constitutionally invalid prior conviction to establish a predicate offense for a subsequent conviction is neither unconstitutional nor barred by the relevant statutory text, it now falls to the legislature to decide whether that is right. To be sure, the plight of an armed felon facing a lengthy sentence is likely to garner little sympathy. But the scenario presented by this case and others like it is troubling on a broader level. Conduct other than the possession of firearms was once criminalized and is now recognized as protected (see,
e.g.
,
Loving v. Virginia
,
¶ 27 The solution need not be an elaborate one. For example, the application notes to the federal sentencing guidelines, which assess "criminal history points" based on a defendant's previous convictions, provide as follows:
" Reversed, Vacated, or Invalidated Convictions .-Sentences resulting from convictions that (A) have been reversed or vacated because of errors of law or because of subsequently discovered evidence exonerating the defendant, or (B) have been ruled constitutionally invalid in a prior case are not to be counted." (Emphasis added.). U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 4A1.2 cmt. n.6. (U.S. Sentencing Comm'n 2016).
The Seventh Circuit has accordingly held that it is improper for a district court to assign points for a defendant's prior conviction under the portion of the AUUW statute struck down in
Aguilar
. See,
e.g.
,
United States v. Jenkins
,
¶ 28 As other members of this court have recognized, there is a significant injustice in placing the burden on a criminal defendant to clear his record of an unconstitutional conviction in order to avoid collateral consequences of that conviction. As *968 the specially concurring justice in People v. Spivey stated:
"We cannot realistically expect the public to read judicial pronouncements and seek their own justice without assistance, or depend on defense attorneys to hunt up their old clients who might be affected by Aguilar . And why should criminal defendants-often poor, struggling, jobless, dependent on public funding for their defenses, unsophisticated, and mostly black or brown-bear the burden to file the necessary paperwork for vacating their convictions, when those convictions were caused by a legislature passing an ultimately unconstitutional statute?" People v. Spivey ,2017 IL App (1st) 123563 , ¶ 24,415 Ill.Dec. 338 ,82 N.E.3d 542 (Hyman, J., specially concurring).
¶ 29 These concerns are greatly amplified where, as here, we are compelled by the legal principles espoused in binding precedent to extend the collateral consequences of an unconstitutionally void statutory provision to situations involving truly life-altering consequences for criminal defendants. The maximum sentence for UUWF-10 years of imprisonment for a first offense and 14 years for a second-pales in comparison to both the 30-year maximum sentence that a defendant faces on an AHC charge and the 60-year maximum sentence available on an extended-term sentence for that charge. Compare 720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(e) (West 2012) with 720 ILCS 5/24-1.7(b) (West 2012), 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-25(a) (West 2012), and 730 ILCS 5/5-8-2(a) (West 2012).
¶ 30 Accordingly, we join those of our colleagues who have called for a legislative solution to this troubling situation. See
People v. Somerville
,
¶ 31 B. One-Act, One Crime
¶ 32 Mr. Smith's convictions for AHC and UUWF are both based on the same physical act: his unlawful possession of a single firearm on October 25, 2013. Mr. Smith contends, and the State agrees, that his conviction for UUWF must therefore be vacated in accordance with the one-act, one-crime rule. Pursuant to that rule, when a defendant is convicted of more than one offense for the same physical act, a "sentence should be imposed on the more serious offense and the less serious offense should be vacated."
People v. Artis
,
¶ 33 CONCLUSION
¶ 34 For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Mr. Smith's AHC conviction and vacate his UUWF conviction.
¶ 35 Affirmed in part and vacated in part; mittimus corrected.
Justice Simon concurred in the judgment and opinion.
Justice Harris specially concurred, with opinion.
¶ 36 JUSTICE HARRIS, specially concurring.
¶ 37 I concur with my authoring colleague in holding that McFadden and Custis control the result in this case, and therefore affirm Mr. Smith's AHC conviction and vacate his UUWF conviction. Additionally, I concur in urging a legislative solution to prevent the imposition of collateral consequences based on constitutionally invalid prior convictions.
¶ 38 However, I do not join in paragraphs 27 through 30 of the opinion, nor the statements, suggestions, or quote from the concurring opinion in
People v. Spivey
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Zachary SMITH, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Unpublished