| Benton v. Maryland
(No. 201)
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| Syllabus
| Opinion
[ Marshall ] | Concurrence
[ White ] | Dissent
[ Harlan ] |
| HTML version
PDF version | HTML version
PDF version | HTML version
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Benton v. Maryland
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, concurring.
While I agree with the Court's extension of the prohibition against double jeopardy to the States, and with the Court's conclusion that the concurrent sentence rule constitutes no jurisdictional bar, additional comment on the wisdom and effects of applying a concurrent sentence rule seems appropriate.
In a time of increasingly congested judicial dockets, often requiring long delays before trial and upon appeal, [p799] judicial resources have become scarce. Where a man has been convicted on several counts and sentenced concurrently upon each, and where judicial review of one count sustains its validity, the need for review of the other counts is not a pressing one since, regardless of the outcome, the prisoner will remain in jail for the same length of time under the count upheld. Rather than permit other cases to languish while careful review of these redundant counts is carried to its futile conclusion, judicial resources might be better employed by moving on to more pressing business. This is not a rule of convenience to the judge, but rather of fairness to other litigants.
This is not to say, however, that the fact of conviction under the unreviewed counts could never be of importance to the prisoner. After his release, it is possible they might be used against him in a recidivism prosecution, or used to impeach his testimony in a trial for another offense, to pick two obvious examples. Nevertheless, the unreviewed counts are, by hypothesis, not of immediate importance to his confinement, and our experience gives us no indication that they are frequently of such importance later that the concurrent sentence rule should not be applied.
The unreviewed count is often one which, but for the concurrent sentence rule, the prisoner would have a right to challenge, either directly or on collateral attack. Arguably, to deny him that right when another man, convicted after a separate trial on each count, or sentenced consecutively, could not be denied that right under the applicable state or federal law raises an equal protection question. But clearly, so long as the denied review is of no significance to the prisoner, the denial of equal protection is not invidious, but only theoretical.
But should a situation arise in which the convict can demonstrate that the unreviewed count is being used [p800] against him, so as to work some harm to him additional to that stemming from the reviewed count, his grievance becomes real. At that point, it may be that he unreviewed count may not be used against him unless it is determined that the lack of earlier review can be cured by then supplying the convict the review to which he would earlier have been entitled but for his concurrent sentence on another count. For myself, postponed review, a question which the Court reserves (ante at 791, n. 7), presents no insuperable difficulties. Appellate review is always conducted on a cold record, and collateral proceedings frequently deal with a stale record and stale facts. There is nothing inherently unfair in permitting the record to become colder while it is irrelevant to any human need, and other litigants' demands are more pressing. Whether reversal on such a record, after delayed review, would permit retrial or a hearing on a claim involving, for example, a coerced confession, is yet a further question which there is no present need to address. Should a satisfactory hearing or retrial prove impossible, this would be an unfortunate byproduct of an initially crowded docket.
For the foregoing reasons, I agree with the Court that the concurrent sentence rule, while not of jurisdictional dimensions, should be preserved as a matter of proper judicial administration both on direct appeal and collateral attack, although, at least in theory, it raises a number of questions concerning the subsequent effects of the unreviewed counts. It may be that, where it can be reliably predicted in a particular case that each count would entail concrete prejudicial consequences at a later date, the appellate court at the time of initial review would prefer to deal with all counts, rather than to apply the concurrent sentence rule. [p801]