State v. Bassett

428 P.3d 343

STATE of Washington, Petitioner,

v.Brian M. BASSETT, Respondent.

No. 94556-0

Supreme Court of Washington.

Oral Argument Date: February 22, 2018

Filed OCTOBER 18, 2018

Jennifer Paige Joseph, King County Prosecutor's Office, 516 3rd Avenue, Suite W554, Seattle, WA 98104-2362, for Petitioner.

Eric William Lindell, Lindell Law Offices, PLLC, P.O. Box 379, Redmond, WA 98073-0379, for Respondent.

Nancy Lynn Talner, Vanessa Torres Hernandez, ACLU of Washington, 901 5th Avenue, Suite 630, Seattle, WA 98164-2086, for Amici Curiae ACLU, Campaign For Fair Sentencing of Youth, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, Mothers Against Murderers Association.

Nicholas Brian Allen, Nicholas Broten Straley, Columbia Legal Services, 101 Yesler Way, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104-2528, for Amicus Curiae (Columbia Legal Services).

Lorraine K. Bannai, Robert S. Chang, Melissa R. Lee, Jessica Levin, Seattle University School of Law, 901 12th Avenue, Korematsu Center For Law & Equality, Seattle, WA 98122-4411, for Amicus Curiae (Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality).

Marsha L. Levick, Juvenile Law Center, 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 400, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107, for Amicus Curiae (Juvenile Law Center).

Bonnie Alison Linville, Teamchild, 32 N. 3rd Street, Suite 410, Yakima, WA 98901-2789, for Amicus Curiae (Teamchild).

Jeffrey Erwin Ellis, Law Office of Alsept & Ellis, 621 SW Morrison Street, Suite 1025, Portland, OR 97205-3813, for Amicus Curiae (Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers).

Hillary Ann Behrman, The Washington Defender Association, 110 Prefontaine Place South, #610, Seattle, WA 98104-2626, for Amicus Curiae (Washington Defender Association).

OWENS, J.

¶ 1 At issue here is the constitutionality of sentencing juvenile offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole or early release. The State appeals a Court of Appeals, Division Two decision holding that the provision of our state’s Miller¹ -fix statute that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be sentenced to life without parole violates the Washington Constitution’s ban on cruel punishment. Brian Bassett, recently resentenced to life without parole under the Miller -fix statute, argued at the Court of Appeals that juvenile life without parole is categorically unconstitutional. The court adopted the categorical approach, rather than our traditional Fain proportionality test, and found that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole or early release constituted cruel punishment. State v. Bassett, 198 Wash.App. 714, 744, 394 P.3d 430 (2017) (published in part); State v. Fain, 94 Wash.2d 387, 617 P.2d 720 (1980). We affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision and hold that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole or early release constitutes cruel punishment and therefore is unconstitutional under article I, section 14 of the Washington Constitution.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 When Brian Bassett was 16 years old, he was living in a "shack" with Nicholaus McDonald after Bassett’s parents " ‘kicked [him] out’ " of their home. State v. Bassett, noted at 94 Wash.App. 1017, 1999 WL 100872, at *1. With McDonald’s assistance, Bassett snuck back into his home and shot his mother and father. Id. His brother was drowned in the bathtub, an act that McDonald initially confessed to but later blamed on Bassett at trial. State v. McDonald, 138 Wash.2d 680, 684, 981 P.2d 443 (1999). Bassett was convicted of three counts of aggravated first degree murder for the deaths of his mother, father, and brother. The judge commented that Bassett, still a child, was "a walking advertisement" for the death penalty and sentenced him to three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Clerk’s Papers at 19. At this time, 1996, life without parole was the mandatory sentence under our state statute. Former RCW 10.95.030 (1993).

¶ 3 After nearly two decades in prison, Bassett had another chance at sentencing in light of the Supreme Court’s Miller decision. 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455. In Miller, the Court held that mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences were unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Id. at 479, 132 S.Ct. 2455. It reasoned that because a mandatory juvenile life without parole scheme did not consider the nature of youth and "children’s diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change," it "poses too great a risk of disproportionate punishment." Id. It noted that "appropriate occasions for sentencing juveniles to this harshest possible penalty will be uncommon." Id. This decision is one from a line of cases wherein the Court curtailed states from imposing the harshest punishments against juveniles. See Montgomery v. Louisiana, ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 718, 193 L.Ed.2d 599 (2016) (holding that Miller announced a new substantive constitutional rule that was retroactive); Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010) (barring life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses); Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005) (barring capital punishment for juvenile offenders).

¶ 4 In response to Miller, our state legislature enacted what is referred to as the Miller -fix statute. RCW 10.95.030. It requires sentencing courts to consider the Miller factors before sentencing a 16- or 17-year-old convicted of aggravated first degree murder to life without parole. Id. The statute provides that "the court must take into account mitigating factors that account for the diminished culpability of youth as provided in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012) including, but not limited to, the age of the individual, the youth’s childhood and life experience, the degree of responsibility the youth was capable of exercising, and the youth’s chances of becoming rehabilitated." RCW 10.95.030(3)(b). The statute mandated that individuals who had been sentenced to juvenile life without parole under the former mandatory scheme, such as Bassett, be resentenced under this new statute. RCW 10.95.035.

¶ 5 Bassett, at 35 years old, appeared for resentencing pursuant to the Miller -fix statute in 2015. Bassett requested three concurrent 25-year sentences and submitted over 100 pages of mitigation documentation, including evidence that he had been rehabilitated since his days as a teenager.

¶ 6 A pediatric psychologist who treated Bassett prior to the murders shed light on Bassett’s childhood and life experience. He testified that Bassett had suffered from an adjustment disorder, struggling to cope effectively with the stressors of homelessness and his strained relationship with his parents. The psychologist testified that during a family counseling session, Bassett attempted to reconcile with his parents, expressing a desire to come back home, but his parents rejected the idea. Bassett addressed the court and stated that at the time of the crimes he was unable to "comprehend the totality" and "see the long-term consequences of [his] actions." Verbatim Report of Proceedings (VRP) at 79. He said that when he was taken to jail on suspicion of murdering his parents, his first thoughts were "how much trouble [he] was going to be in when [his] parents learned that [he] was there in jail." VRP at 79-80.

¶ 7 Bassett also submitted significant evidence demonstrating how he has matured emotionally and behaviorally. He successfully completed courses examining stress and family violence in order to, as his brief states, "better understand his crimes." Br. of Resp’t at 3 n.6. He has not had any prison violations since 2003, and the Department of Corrections classified him as a moderate-to-low security risk. He earned his GED (general equivalency diploma) and a full tuition scholarship for college, and was on the Edmonds Community College honor roll. Many letters from Bassett’s supporters stated that he serves as a mentor to other men in prison. He married Joanne Pfeifer in 2010 after premarital counseling.

¶ 8 The State did not present any evidence rebutting Bassett’s mitigating information. The sentencing judge rejected most of the mitigation evidence and imposed three consecutive life without parole sentences.

¶ 9 Bassett appealed, arguing, among other things, that Washington’s Miller - Fix statute violated article I, section 14 because life without parole was categorically a cruel punishment for juvenile offenders. Bassett, 198 Wash.App. 714, 394 P.3d 430. The State did not address this argument in its briefing or at oral argument, and so the court ordered the State to file a supplemental brief responding to this argument.

¶ 10 The Court of Appeals held in the published portion of its opinion that juvenile life without parole was categorically unconstitutional under article I, section 14. Id. at 744, 394 P.3d 430. The court came to this conclusion by adopting the categorical bar analysis, a framework used by the United States Supreme Court and, most recently, by the Iowa Supreme Court to assess the categorical challenges against juvenile sentences. Id. (referencing Graham, 560 U.S. at 82, 130 S.Ct. 2011 ; State v. Sweet, 879 N.W.2d 811 (Iowa 2016) ). In the court’s unpublished portion of the opinion, it dismissed Bassett’s remaining arguments, including his claim that the sentencing court erred in applying the Miller factors. Bassett , No. 4725-1-II, slip op. at30-36 (Wash. Ct. App. Apr. 25, 2017) (unpublished), http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/.

¶ 11 The State petitioned our court for review, arguing that the Court of Appeals’ decision "ignore[d] the history of juvenile sentencing in Washington and abandon[ed] [ Fain, ] Washington’s long-standing framework for evaluating cruel punishment under the state constitution[,] ... in favor of the analysis of a foreign state court." Pet. for Review at 11-12. We accepted review of the State’s petition and denied review of the issues raised by...