State of Tennessee v. Travis Young

This appeal involves the sentencing of a defendant who shot and seriously wounded a victim during an armed robbery and then two days later led law enforcement authorities on a lengthy and dangerous high-speed chase in an attempt to evade arrest. A Shelby County jury convicted the defendant of numerous offenses arising out of these incidents, and the trial court imposed an effective sixteen-year sentence. On the defendant’s first appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the sentences and remanded the case for a new sentencing hearing after concluding that the trial court’s sentencing findings were inadequate. On remand, the trial court imposed the same sixteen-year sentence. On the defendant’s second appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals made its own sentencing findings and imposed an effective seventeen-year sentence on the defendant. We granted the defendant’s Tenn. R. App. P. 11 application. We now hold that theCourt of Criminal Appeals exceeded its authority under Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-401(c)(2) (2006) by increasing the defendant’s effective sentence from sixteen to seventeen years. We also hold (1) that the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not require that the facts necessary for the imposition of consecutive sentences be determined by a jury, (2) that the Court of Criminal Appeals made adequate findings with regard to its decision to impose consecutive sentences, and (3) that the record contains sufficient evidence to sustain a decision to impose an effective sixteen-year sentence on the defendant.