Hicks v. Oklahoma

The petitioner was brought to trial in an Oklahoma court on a charge of unlawfully distributing heroin. Since he had been convicted of felony offenses twice within the preceding 10 years, the members of the jury were instructed, in accordance with the habitual offender statute then in effect in Oklahoma,1 *345that, if they found the petitioner guilty, they “shall assess [the] punishment at forty (40) years imprisonment.” The jury returned a verdict of guilt and imposed the mandatory 40-year prison term.

Subsequent to the petitioner’s conviction, the provision of the habitual offender statute under…