People v. Stefanski
People v. Stefanski
Opinion
*834 ¶ 1 Pursuant to a fully negotiated plea agreement, the defendant, Michael J. Stefanski, pled guilty to aggravated battery ( 720 ILCS 5/12-3.05(c) (West 2014) ) and retail theft ( 720 ILCS 5/16-25(a)(1) (West 2014) ). He later filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging that he did not understand the employment ramifications *835 *541 of pleading guilty to a felony. The motion was denied, and Stefanski appealed. On appeal, Stefanski argues that (1) the circuit court's ruling should be vacated and the case remanded to allow him to plead anew due to an amendment to the statute governing guilty plea admonishments that now requires the court to admonish defendants of certain consequences collateral to a plea of guilty and (2) he is entitled to new postplea proceedings because counsel failed to strictly comply with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 604(d) (eff. Dec. 3, 2015). We affirm.
¶ 2 FACTS
¶ 3 On November 3, 2015, Stefanski was charged with aggravated battery ( 720 ILCS 5/12-3.05(c) (West 2014) ) and retail theft ( 720 ILCS 5/16-25(a)(1) (West 2014) ). The former charge was a Class 3 felony.
¶ 4 On December 17, 2015, Stefanski entered into a fully negotiated plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to both charges and serve a 90-day jail sentence and 24 months of probation. During admonishments, Stefanski was not informed of any collateral consequences of his guilty plea. The court accepted the plea and Stefanski waived his right to a presentence report and hearing in mitigation. Then, the court sentenced Stefanski to the agreed-upon sentence.
¶ 5 On January 11, 2016, Stefanski filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea in which he alleged that he did not understand the plea. On March 14, 2016, the circuit court held a hearing on the motion. On that day, defense counsel filed a certificate pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 604(d) (eff. Dec. 3, 2015) in which he stated, in relevant part, that he had reviewed the "report of proceedings of the plea of guilty and the report of proceedings at the guilty plea hearing."
¶ 6 Stefanski stated at the hearing that, when he pled guilty, he did not understand the impact a felony conviction would have on his ability to find employment. In denying the motion, the court stated:
"It's clear what happened here was after he got out, he started realizing what all the collateral consequences of a felony conviction was, such as it can make it tough to get a job. That's a collateral consequence. The Court is not required to advise him of that collateral consequence. The fact that he might not have known that or understood that does not make the plea unknowing, involuntary."
¶ 7 On March 17, 2016, Stefanski appealed.
¶ 8 ANALYSIS
¶ 9 Stefanski's first argument on appeal is that the circuit court's ruling should be vacated and the case remanded to allow him to plead anew due to an amendment to the statute governing guilty plea admonishments that now requires the court to admonish defendants of certain consequences collateral to a plea of guilty. Stefanski claims that the amendment should apply retroactively to his situation because it was merely a procedural change in the law.
¶ 10 The question of whether an amended statute applies retroactively presents a question of law that we review
de novo
.
People v. Hunter
,
¶ 11 At the time of Stefanski's plea, section 113-4(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 did not require the sentencing court to admonish a defendant regarding the collateral consequences of pleading guilty. 725 ILCS 5/113-4(c) (West 2014);
In re Detention of Lindsay
,
¶ 12 Our supreme court recently clarified Illinois's retroactivity jurisprudence in
Perry v. Department of Financial & Professional Regulation
,
"Under step one of Landgraf , a court first determines whether the legislature has expressly prescribed the temporal reach of the new law. [Citation.] If the legislature has clearly indicated the temporal reach, then such temporal reach must be given effect unless to do so would be constitutionally prohibited." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)Id.
¶ 13 There is no question in this case that the legislature did not clearly indicate a temporal reach when it amended section 113-4(c). In such a situation, Illinois courts do
not
use the second step of the
Landgraf
analysis.
"No new law shall be construed to repeal a former law, whether such former law is expressly repealed or not, as to any offense committed against the former law, or as to any act done, any penalty, forfeiture or punishment incurred, or any right accrued, or claim arising under the former law, or in any way whatever to affect any such offense or act so committed or done, or any penalty, forfeiture or punishment so incurred, or any right accrued, or claim arising before the new law takes effect, save only that the proceedings thereafter shall conform, so far as practicable, to the laws in force at the time of such proceeding. If any penalty, forfeiture or punishment be mitigated by any provisions of a new law, such provision may, by the consent of the party affected, be applied to any judgment pronounced after the new law takes effect. This section shall extend to all repeals, either by express words or by implication, whether the repeal is in the act making any new provision upon the same subject or in any other act."Id.
Section 4 is a general savings clause that our supreme court has interpreted to apply to repeals and amendments (
People ex rel. Alvarez v. Howard
,
¶ 14 To distinguish procedural laws from substantive laws, the Perry court turned to dictionary definitions. Id. ¶¶ 69-70. In essence, *543 *837 the Perry court concluded that procedural laws are laws that establish the ways in which rights or duties are judicially enforced, while substantive laws are laws that create and define those rights and duties. Id.
¶ 15 Our review of the amendment to section 113-4(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 reveals that the legislature
created
a new right for defendants and therefore substantively amended it. See
id.
¶ 71. Prior to the amendment, as previously stated, a defendant had no right to be informed of the collateral consequences of a guilty plea during admonishments.
Lindsay
,
¶ 16 One aspect of Stefanski's argument in support of his claim that the amendment is procedural bears addressing. Even though he acknowledges that the amendment requires "new admonishments," he claims that the amendment "merely describes new procedures for the trial court at guilty plea hearings before it is allowed to accept the agreement." What Stefanski describes are the procedural ramifications of a substantive change in the law; obviously, the circuit court must now verbalize these collateral consequences during admonishments. But doing so is necessary only because a new right was created. As our supreme court has stated, "[p]rocedural ramifications of a substantive amendment do not make the amendment procedural."
People v. Atkins
,
¶ 17 We also note this court's recent opinion in
People v. Young
,
"we find that the amendment in question is procedural in nature. See Rivard v. Chicago Fire Fighters Union, Local No. 2 ,122 Ill. 2d 303 , 310-11,119 Ill.Dec. 336 ,522 N.E.2d 1195 (1988) ('[P]rocedure embraces "pleading, evidence and practice. Practice means those legal rules which direct the course of proceedings to bring parties into court and the course of the court after they are brought in." ' (quoting Ogdon v. Gianakos ,415 Ill. 591 , 596,114 N.E.2d 686 (1953) ) )." Id. ¶ 17.
The
Young
court arrived at that conclusion without ever discussing
Perry
and its clarification of Illinois retroactivity jurisprudence. As previously stated, we believe an application of
Perry
to the instant case leads to the conclusion that the amendment to section 113-4(c) was in fact substantive and not procedural.
Supra
¶¶ 14-16. We therefore decline to follow
Young
. See
O'Casek v. Children's Home & Aid Society of Illinois
,
¶ 18 For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the amendment to section 113-4(c) is substantive and therefore cannot be applied retroactively to Stefanski's situation. See
Perry
,
¶ 19 Lastly, we note Stefanski's alternative argument that the court failed to realize it had the discretion to allow the motion even though the court was not required at sentencing to inform him of the collateral consequences of pleading guilty. This argument is best understood by the following summarizing statement contained in Stefanski's brief:
*838 *544 "Should this Court find the statute does not apply retroactively to defendant, it should still reverse and remand the cause so that the trial court will have the opportunity to appropriately exercise its discretion in light of the new statute."
This is merely another way of asking this court to apply the statute retroactively. The focus of the retroactivity analysis is on legislative intent.
Perry
,
¶ 20 Stefanski's second argument on appeal is that he is entitled to new postplea proceedings because counsel failed to strictly comply with Rule 604(d). Stefanski points out that while counsel stated that he had reviewed the transcript of the guilty plea proceeding, he did not state that he had reviewed the transcript of the sentencing hearing, which was clearly required by the rule.
¶ 21 At the time counsel filed his certificate, Rule 604(d) stated in relevant part:
"The defendant's attorney shall file with the trial court a certificate stating that the attorney has consulted with the defendant either by phone, mail, electronic means or in person to ascertain defendant's contentions of error in the sentence and the entry of the plea of guilty, has examined the trial court file and both the report of proceedings of the plea of guilty and the report of proceedings in the sentencing hearing , and has made any amendments to the motion necessary for adequate presentation of any defects in those proceedings." (Emphasis added.) Ill. S.Ct. R. 604(d) (eff. Mar. 8, 2016).
The rule also stated that the certificate "shall be in following form" and included, in relevant part, the following line: "I have examined the trial court file and report of proceedings of the plea of guilty and the report of proceedings in the sentencing hearing." Id.
¶ 22 Attorneys must strictly comply with the requirements of Rule 604(d).
In re H.L.
,
¶ 23 Stefanski's argument fails to recognize that no sentencing hearing was held in this case. While section 5-4-1(a) of the Unified Code of Corrections provides defendants with a statutory right to a sentencing hearing, in relevant part, after "a determination of guilt," it has long been held that "a negotiated guilty plea does not involve a determination of guilt as contemplated by [what is now section 5-4-1(a) ]." (Emphases omitted.)
People v. Cooper
,
¶ 24 A similar situation arose and was recently addressed by this court in
People v. Jackson
,
"The only discussion of defendant's sentence was contained in the transcript of the guilty plea hearing. Thus, by certifying that she had reviewed the report of proceedings of the plea of guilty, counsel also certified that she had reviewed the transcript of the court's discussion of defendant's sentence." Id.
¶ 25 Like the situation in Jackson , no sentencing hearing was held in this case. Thus, by certifying that he had reviewed the "report of proceedings of the plea of guilty and the report of proceedings at the guilty plea hearing," counsel strictly complied with Rule 604(d). Id. Accordingly, we reject Stefanski's argument.
¶ 26 CONCLUSION
¶ 27 The judgment of the circuit court of Henry County is affirmed.
¶ 28 Affirmed.
Justice O'Brien concurred in the judgment and opinion.
Justice Holdridge specially concurred, with opinion.
¶ 29 JUSTICE HOLDRIDGE, specially concurring:
¶ 30 In
Young
,
¶ 31 I would hold that, pursuant to Young and its application to the facts in the instant matter, the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed. Therefore, while I disagree with the majority's analysis, I agree with the holding herein affirming the judgment of the circuit court.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael J. STEFANSKI, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Unpublished