Ninth Circuit says aloha to Hawaii’s sentencing system

January 11, 2006

In what may be the most significant and potentially far-reaching federal habeas decision about a state sentencing system since Blakely, the Ninth Circuit today in Kaua v. Frank, No. 05-15059 (9th Cir. Jan. 11, 2006) (available here), has concluded (despite a contrary opinion from the Hawaii Supreme Court) that an aspect of Hawaii’s sentencing system violates the Apprendi-Blakely rule. Here is the opening of the opinion:

Appellants, the State of Hawaii and Clayton Frank, appeal the Hawaii district court’s grant of Wayman Kaua’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and we affirm. The Hawaii sentencing court found that an extended sentence was necessary to protect the public in Kaua’s case. Because the effect of this finding was to increase Kaua’s sentence above that authorized by the jury’s guilty verdict, we hold that Apprendi v. New Jersey required a jury to make the finding. In reaching the opposite conclusion, the Hawaii Supreme Court applied a rule — the “intrinsic/extrinsic” analysis — contrary to the rule that Apprendi announced. The district court properly granted the writ.

There are a lot of facets to this Ninth Circuit panel ruling, and it reinforces the Ninth Circuit’s tendency to view the prior conviction exception narrowly. Since Hawaii likely won’t be too happy about this ruling, I would expect an en banc and/or cert. petition to follow. (I wonder if I can convince my dean that I need to now spend the rest of January doing fieldwork on this case in Maui….)