No. SCWC-20-0000650, Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 10 a.m.

STATE OF HAWAIʻI, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. STANLEY CANOSA, Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant.

The above-captioned case has been set for oral argument on the merits at:

Supreme Court Courtroom
Aliʻiōlani Hale, 2nd Floor
417 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

The oral argument was livestreamed for public viewing via the Judiciary’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/hawaiicourts.

Attorney for Petitioner Stanley Canosa:

Shawn A. Luiz

Attorney for Respondent State of Hawaiʻi:

Stephen K. Tsushima, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney

NOTE: Order accepting Application for Writ of Certiorari, filed 09/16/22.

COURT: Recktenwald, C.J., Nakayama, McKenna, Wilson, and Eddins, JJ.

[ Listen to the entire audio recording in mp3 format ]

Brief Description:

Petitioner Stanley Canosa (Canosa) appeals from a Judgment, an Amended Judgment, and an Order Denying Canosa’s Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence.

Canosa was initially convicted of three offenses in 2011: a class B felony (Count 1), a class A felony (Count 2), and a class C felony (Count 3). Canosa was sentenced to ten (10) years extended to twenty (20) years for Count 1, life with the possibility of parole for Count 2, and five (5) years extended to ten (10) years for Count 3, all terms to run concurrently. However, in 2014 Canosa’s convictions and sentence were vacated and remanded for a new trial by the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Following retrial in 2016, Canosa was convicted of two offenses: Count 1 and Count 3. Canosa was again sentenced to extended terms of twenty (20) years for Count 1 and ten (10) years for Count 3. The terms were to run consecutively. Canosa appealed on the basis that his new sentence violated Hawaii Revised Statutes § 706-609 by imposing a more severe sentence for Counts 1 and 3 following retrial. The ICA agreed, and in 2018 the ICA affirmed Canosa’s conviction but vacated his new sentence, finding that the imposition of consecutive terms resulted in a more severe sentence for Counts 1 and 3. The case was remanded to the Circuit Court for resentencing.

On remand, Canosa was resentenced to extended terms of imprisonment of twenty (20) years for Count 1 and ten (10) years for Count 3, this time to run concurrently. In this appeal, Canosa argues that the 2020 resentencing was illegal because by the time the Circuit Court resentenced Canosa, the maximum ordinary terms for each sentence had expired (ten years in Count 1 and five years in Count 3) as Canosa had been in custody for over ten years, leaving no sentence to be extended. Canosa thus contends he has been illegally detained in violation of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 5 of the Hawai‘i Constitution since September 21, 2019.

The State argues, that Canosa’s 2016 sentence was vacated only to the extent it imposed consecutive sentences, and that the extended terms of 20 years and 10 years remained in effect following the 2018 vacatur and remand. Thus, the State argues that the Circuit Court properly resentenced Canosa.