Delmart Edward Vreeland v. Colorado

After the trial court denied Petitioner's request under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), and Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), for trial on habitual criminal charges by a jury, Petitioner was adjudicated a habitual criminal under state law, subjecting him to an increased maximum sentence, based on a finding by the trial judge, not the jury, that his prior convictions arose from separate and distinct criminal episodes, allegedly separately brought and tried. The court below ignored Apprendi and Blakely, supra, and denied relief even after this Court held, again, that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments require a unanimous jury to determine beyond a reasonable doubt whether a defendant's past offenses were committed on separate occasions under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Erlinger v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 1840, 1846 (2024). Al though Petitioner is more than fifteen years past his maximum discharge date, the court below refused to address the issue presented, and the state's highest court has denied a petition for certiorari, which the Respondent, State of Colorado, did not oppose. The question presented is: Whether Petitioner's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights were violated when he was subjected to an increased maximum sentence based on the trial court's finding that his past offenses were committed on separate occasions and separately brought and tried on different dates.