Al C. Parke, Warden v. Ricky Harold Raley (506 U.S. 20)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 1, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 506 U.S. 20 · 113 S. Ct. 517
- Decided
- December 1, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. Kentucky’s “Persistent felony offender sentencing” statute, Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. §532.080 (Michie 1990), provides mandatory minimum sentences for repeat felons. Under Kentucky law, a defendant charged as a persistent felony offender may challenge prior convictions that form the basis of the charge on the ground that they are invalid. Respondent, who was indicted under the statute, claimed that two convictions offered against him were invalid under Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U. S. 238 (1969). The trial court, after a hearing, rejected this claim, and respondent was convicted ánd sentenced as a persistent felony offender. After exhausting his state remedies, respondent petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The District Court denied relief, but the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered that the writ conditionally issue, concluding that the trial court proceedings were constitutionally infirm. As it comes to this Court, the question presented is whether Kentucky’s procedure for determining a prior conviction’s validity under Boykin violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because It does not require the government to carry the entire burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence when a transcript of the prior plea proceeding is…
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