Mabry v. Klimas, 448 U.S. 444 (1980)

448 U.S.
444
100 S.Ct. 2755
65 L.Ed.2d 897
James MABRY, Commissioner, Arkansas Department of

Correction
v.
Francis Edward KLIMAS.
No. 79-622.
June 30, 1980.
PER CURIAM.
The respondent was convicted by a jury in an Arkansas court of burglary and

grand larceny. In accordance with the recidivist statute then in effect in
Arkansas, the members of the jury were instructed that if they found that the
respondent had been convicted of three prior felony offenses, they could fix his
sentence at not less than 21 and not more than 311/2 years for both burglary
and grand larceny. Evidence was admitted of seven prior felony convictions
from Missouri and of six from Arkansas. The jury found that the petitioner had
been convicted of three prior felonies, and set his punishment at 311/2 years for
each of the two offenses of which they had found him guilty. The trial judge
ordered that the terms were to be served consecutively.
On appeal, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed, concluding that the evidence
of the Missouri convictions was inadmissible for the purpose of enhancing the
respondent's sentence because it did not appear that he had had the assistance of
counsel at the trial of those cases. Klimas v. State, 259 Ark. 301, 303-304, 534
S.W.2d 202, 203-204 citing Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 88 S.Ct. 258, 19
L.Ed.2d 319 (1967). The court directed that the respondent be retried unless the
State agreed to a reduction of his sentence to three years, the minimum sentence
that he could have received for the burglary and larceny offenses. 259 Ark., at
309, 534 S.W.2d, at 207. On rehearing, the court revised the sentence to 42
years, comprised of the two minimum terms of 21 years authorized for the
offenses in the case of a defendant having three past convictions. The court
reasoned that since the jury had been required to consider the six Arkansas
convictions whose validity the respondent had not disputed at trial, it could not
have fixed the punishment at less than 21 years for each offense.1
3
The respondent then sought a writ of habeas corpus in a Federal District Court,
alleging that his sentencing after trial had been unconstitutional and was not
remedied by the Arkansas Supreme Court's revision of it to 42 years. The
District Court dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction, but the Court of
Appeals reversed concluding that the respondent had been denied due process
of law by the State's failure to permit him to be resentenced by a jury, in accord
with what it understood to be state statutory law. 599 F.2d 842 (CA8 1979).
The Court of Appeals acknowledged that the omission of discretionary
resentencing by a jury would not have prejudiced the respondent if, as the
Arkansas Supreme Court had concluded, he had received the most lenient
sentence authorized by law for the offenses of which he had been convicted. Cf.
Hicks v. Oklahoma, 447 U.S. 343, 100 S.Ct. 2227, 65 L.Ed.2d 175 (1980).2 But
the Court of Appeals believed that resentencing was required in this case
because the habitual offender statute had been amended since the respondent's
trial, and, if applied to him, the amended statute would provide a lower
minimum sentence.3 Accordingly, while the court expressed uncertainty
whether the amendment applied to the respondent, it nonetheless ordered that
the District Court issue the writ unless he was resentenced by a jury.
The claim that the respondent is entitled to be resentenced by reason of the

amended recidivist statute apparently has not been presented to the state courts.
In these circumstances, in the absence of any reason to believe that state
judicial remedies would now be unavailable, a federal court is required to stay
its hand "to give the State the initial 'opportunity to pass upon and correct'
alleged violations of . . . federal rights." Wilwording v. Swenson, 404 U.S. 249,
250, 92 S.Ct. 407, 409, 30 L.Ed.2d 418 (1971), quoting Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S.
391, 438, 83 S.Ct. 822, 848, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963). See Picard v. Connor, 404
U.S. 270, 277-278, 92 S.Ct. 509, 513-514, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971). The
requirement that state remedies first be pursued, codified in the federal habeas
corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. 2254(b) and (c), is particularly appropriate where,
as here, the federal constitutional claim arises from the alleged deprivation by
state courts of rights created under state law. The Court of Appeals
acknowledged that the construction of the statute, plainly a matter for the state
courts to decide was at best uncertain. Obviously, therefore, the state courts can
in no sense be said to have arbitrarily denied any right they were asked to
accord. The petition for certiorari and the respondent's motion for leave to
proceed in forma pauperis are granted, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for proceedings consistent with
this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Mr. Justice MARSHALL concurs in the judgment.
The respondent contends that the minimum sentence he could have received
was 21, not 42 years, since the trial judge was allegedly authorized to direct
that the burglary and larceny sentences run concurrently. This was also the
view of Judge Henley, dissenting from the Court of Appeals' denial of en banc
consideration of the case. 603 F.2d 158, 159 (CA8 1979). Because the question
was not decided either by the Arkansas Supreme Court or by the federal courts
in this case, we do not now consider it.
In Hicks v. Oklahoma, this Court held that the right of a criminal defendant
under state law to have his punishment fixed in the discretion of the trial jury
gave him "a substantial and legitimate expectation that he will be deprived of
his liberty only to the extent determined by the jury in the exercise of its
statutory discretion, cf. Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U.S. 1 [99
S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668], and that liberty interest is one that the Fourteenth
Amendment preserves against arbitrary deprivation by the State. See Vitek v.
Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 488-489 [100 S.Ct. 1254, 63 L.Ed.2d 552], citing Wolff v.
McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 [94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935]; Greenholtz v.
Nebraska Penal Inmates ; Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33
L.Ed.2d 484]." 447 U.S., at 346, 100 S.Ct., at 2229. The jury in Hicks had fixed
the petitioner's punishment at 40 years, in accord with the mandatory terms of
the State's habitual offender statute then in effect. On appeal, the mandatory
provision was determined to be invalid, but the appellate court nonetheless
affirmed the 40-year sentence because it was within the range of punishments
that a correctly instructed jury could have imposed in any event. This Court
concluded that the deprivation of a discretionary jury sentence that could well
have been less than 40 years had denied the petitioner due process of law. Ibid.
The revised statute by its terms applies only to offenses committed after
January 1, 1976. See Ark.Stat.Ann. 41-102(1) and (3) (1977). The
respondent was convicted and sentenced in the trial court in 1975, and the case
was reheard by the Arkansas Supreme Court in March 1976, when the court
modified his sentence, presumably in accord with the state law then governing
the case.

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Mabry v. Klimas, 448 U.S. 444 (1980)

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448 U.S.

James MABRY, Commissioner, Arkansas Department of

The respondent was convicted by a jury in an Arkansas court of burglary and

The claim that the respondent is entitled to be resentenced by reason of the

Mr. Justice MARSHALL concurs in the judgment.

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