Ashley GADDY, State and Federal Prisoner, Appellee, v. George MICHAEL, in his official capacity as parole officer of the U. S. Board of Paroles, et al., and the U. S. Board of Paroles, Appellants.
No. 74-2054.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Argued March 7, 1975. Decided July 7, 1975.
519 F.2d 669
John E. Gehring, Walnut Cove (court-appointed), for appellee.
Before WINTER, CRAVEN and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.
DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge:
The issue in this appeal is whether the Parole Board is required to hold and dispose of a revocation proceeding within two months after the issuance of a parole violators warrant or may delay, under appropriate circumstances, the hearing on, and disposition of, such warrant until it has been executed.1 The District Court held that the Board must dispose of the proceeding within this two months\’ period. We conclude, to the contrary, that the execution of the warrant may, in proper circumstances, be held in abeyance and that, when so held in abeyance, the revocation hearing on, and the disposition of the warrant may be delayed until after the warrant has been executed. We accordingly reverse.
The petitioner, who has filed this habeas proceeding, had been convicted of the federal crime of counterfeiting and had secured mandatory good-time release under
It is generally agreed and has long been recognized that the Board of Parole, after the issuance of its parole violators warrant, is obligated, as a matter of fundamental fairness, to execute with reasonable dispatch its parole violators warrant and, after the warrant has been executed, to accord to the parolee his due process rights to a hearing within a reasonable time.5 But, the authorities, while recognizing this obligation, have uniformly held that there is no inflexible time standard, such as the sixty-day standard mandated by the decision of the District Court, within which the Board must act, either in the execution of the warrant or, after its execution, in according the parolee his hearing rights.6 What is a reasonable time and whether the Board in a particular case has acted within a reasonable time, either in connection with the execution of the warrant or in the subsequent grant of a hearing, just as the constitutional right to a speedy trial, may not be cast in absolute terms and “quantified into a specific number of days or months”7 but depends upon all the circumstances of the particular case. Shelton v. United States Board of Parole (1967) 128 U.S.App.D.C. 311, 388 F.2d 567, 574; Williams v. Pierpont (D.C.Mo.1970) 315 F.Supp. 1311, 1313. Mere lapse of time or delay, particularly where the delay is in the execution of the warrant, without more, will no more violate the due process right of a parolee than will a delay of trial in the ordinary criminal case offend the “speedy trial” provision of the Constitution, Cf., Barker v. Wingo, supra. To entitle the parolee to relief, the delay, taking into consideration all the circumstances, must be unreasonable; it must also be prejudicial. A decisive issue in these cases is prejudice. As a matter of fact, a leading authority has characterized prejudice as “the focal point of the inquiry.” Shelton v. United States Board of Parole, supra, at 574; Savage v. U. S. Parole Board (6th Cir. 1970) 422 F.2d 1248, 1250. To repeat, delay “is but one element, albeit a forceful one, to be considered. Timely objection to the delay, unavailability of witnesses, lost sources of mitigating evidence, the violator\‘s own conduct as a contributing cause of the delay, and the Parole Board\‘s reasons for the delay are factors which also must weigh in the balance” when determining whether there has been unreasonable delay and whether there has been prejudice. United States v. Kenton (D.C.Conn.1967) 262 F.Supp. 205, 209; Agresti v. Parker (D.C.Pa.1968) 285 F.Supp. 893, 897; Shelton v. United States, supra, at 574.
” * * * In fairness to the defendant he should first be afforded the opportunity to have his case tried before a jury in the state court. The Federal Parole Board also ought not be required to determine the issues of the state charge prior to the trial in the state court. * * * ”
The same reasoning was stated by the Court in Shelton v. United States, supra, (388 F.2d at 573):
” * * * Since there is no need to hold a revocation hearing at all in such cases the violation being established by the criminal conviction there can be no prejudice to the parolee in regard to determining the fact of violation by awaiting the outcome of criminal proceedings, and there may be an advantage, as appellees suggest, in leaving \‘the determination of guilt or innocence * * * to the courts (rather) than to an informal Board hearing.\’ ”
A delay of 18 months between issuance and execution of the warrant in Burdette, almost 3 years in Moore v. Smith (7th Cir. 1969) 412 F.2d 720 and 2 years in Boswell v. United States (1967) 128 U.S.App.D.C. 311, 388 F.2d 567, 572, were found reasonable on this basis.10
Equally settled is the rule that “where a warrant has been properly issued within the maximum term of the sentence, the execution of that warrant may be held in abeyance for the service of an intervening sentence” and again such delay is reasonable. Stockton v. Massey (4th Cir. 1929) 34 F.2d 96, 97, cert. denied, 281 U.S. 723, 50 S.Ct. 239, 74 L.Ed. 1141 (1930); United States ex rel. Blassingame v. Gengler (2d Cir. 1974) 502 F.2d 1388; Small v. Britton, supra (500 F.2d at 301); Trimmings v. Henderson (5th Cir. 1974) 498 F.2d 86, 87; Cook v. United States Attorney General, supra (488 F.2d at 671); Vladovic v. Parker (9th Cir. 1972) 455 F.2d 495, 496; Barr v. Parker (9th Cir. 1971) 453 F.2d 865, 867; Cox v. Feldkamp (5th Cir. 1971) 438 F.2d 1, 3; Moore v. Smith, supra (412 F.2d at 724).11 Delays of 3 to 4 years have been approved in these situations.12 This exception, too, is supported by consideration of fairness to the parolee. To require a hearing at the time of the parolee\‘s conviction on the intervening charge would “frequently operate to the detriment of the prisoner by forcing the Board to exercise its discretion at a point in time when the prisoner\‘s record would argue least favorably for lenient treatment.” Noorlander v. United States Attorney General, supra (465 F.2d at 1110). By delaying the hearing, however, the Board gives the parolee the opportunity, after notice, so to conduct his behavior during service of the intervening sentence as to establish a basis for the withdrawal of the warrant at the conclusion of his intervening sentence.13 We would emphasize, too, as did the Court in Cook, supra, at pp. 671-2, “that where the parole revocation hearing is deferred pending service of the intervening sentence, the parolee is not left without notice of the issuance of the violator\‘s parole warrant nor review of the propriety of its continued existence as a detainer.” (Italics added) The parolee, as was the case here, is extended the right to apply for “a dispositional interview at the federal prison * * * at which time the continued propriety of the detainer may be challenged” under the terms of
We accordingly conclude that the Board was perfectly justified in holding in abeyance and delaying execution of its warrant in this case until the petitioner had been released by State authorities after service of his sentence for the intervening charge, which was the basis for the warrant.24 Even were we to find that the delay had been unreasonable, however, the petitioner would still be entitled to relief only if he could establish prejudice.25
The petitioner in this case was manifestly not prejudiced by the delay in the factual establishment of his violation of parole. He certainly was not prejudiced in his right to a prima facie hearing. The District Court conceded that his conviction in state court was conclusive on that right. The District Court, however, found prejudice in delay of a final hearing on three grounds, no one of which we find sound. First, it found that “(D)elay fades and perishes evidence of mitigation” and “(W)itnesses may die or forget.” All of this is true but these are reasons that have particular relevancy where the fact of violation is in dispute. As Morrissey itself points out, they are largely insignificant where the fact of violation is conclusively established by the criminal conviction itself. Moreover, if the petitioner seeks to claim prejudice on this ground, he is obligated to show “what evidence and what witnesses he would have presented at a timely hearing which were unavailable to him because of the delay” and, absent such a showing, he may not claim prejudice in this particular. Jenkins v. United States (D.C.Conn.1972) 337 F.Supp. 1368, 1371; Skeeter v. McCune, supra (382 F.Supp. at 252). The petitioner has made no such showing. Next, the District Court found that by reason of the delay the petitioner lost the opportunity for having prompt consideration of his right to concurrency of state and federal sentence. The authorities, however, are uniform on the point that the right to concurrency of sentence is a matter exclusively in the province of the Board and delay on the part of the Board in executing the warrant will not support a claim of prejudice consisting of a loss of opportunity for concurrency of sentence.26 Finally, the District Court found prejudice because the delay may have caused the parolee-prisoner “to lose prison privileges,” “rehabilitative opportunity” and possible loss of “gain time.” When the warrant rests on a criminal conviction, such a claim has, however, not been found to create the type of prejudice which will justify the invalidation of the warrant. See Noorlander v. United States Attorney General, supra (465 F.2d at 1109).
To summarize, we conclude that the delay by the Board in according the petitioner a hearing on his parole violators warrant until he had served his intervening sentence, which was the basis of the warrant, was not unreasonable; and, even if unreasonable, the petitioner suffered no prejudice thereby and was entitled to no relief on account thereof. The order of the District Court is accordingly reversed, with directions to dismiss the petition.
Reversed.
Notes
Shelton instanced two cases of such extreme delay as to create an irrebuttable presumption of prejudice (388 F.2d at 574, n. 10). In one of these the delay between issuance and execution was eleven years. United States v. Gernie (D.C.N.Y.1964) 228 F.Supp. 329, 338. In the other, the delay was 14 years. United States v. Ragen (D.C.Ill.1945) 59 F.Supp. 374.
In Simon v. Moseley (10th Cir. 1971) 452 F.2d 306, 309, a similar result was reached. There, a delay of four years from issuance to completion of an intervening sentence was found reasonable but a further delay of four years after the intervening sentence had been concluded in the execution of the warrant was found to be unreasonable and prejudicial.
” * * * Where there is confinement for a charge that is not alleged as a ground for revocation of parole it is not per se reasonable to defer determination of whether there has been a violation of parole pending the completion of the unrelated criminal proceedings. If the Board intended to pursue the charge that the parole board\‘s order had been violated by failure to report, there is at least an issue whether it was reasonable to delay this determination for two and a half years merely because the parolee was in confinement on an unrelated Dyer Act charge.”
“Generally the commission of a criminal offense while on parole or on a conditional release is a ground for the revocation of the release. If the parole board decides to institute revocation proceedings, it issues a parole violator warrant. However, customarily, these are not served upon the releasee immediately, but are instead held as a detainer against the prisoner while he is serving the sentence on the new conviction.”
” * * * Obviously a parolee cannot relitigate issues determined against him in other forums, as in the situation presented when the revocation is based on conviction of another crime. * * *
” * * * If it is determined that petitioners admitted parole violations to the Parole Board, as respondents contend, and if those violations are found to be reasonable grounds for revoking parole under state standards, that would end the matter.”
This follows substantially the language in Hyser v. Reed, supra (318 F.2d at 246) that:
” * * * Those who have not denied the charged violation of parole or any whose parole was revoked because of a criminal conviction would not now be benefited by a hearing which is designed specifically to make a record only in cases where the fact of violation is controverted.”
It would seem, also, unlikely that the Court was establishing two different and inconsistent rules in its decisions in Morrissey and Wingo. In both cases, the individual is deprived of his liberty on a charge that has not been proved. The right to a prompt hearing is equally cogent in both cases. A rule that requires a hearing in the one case and a trial in the other within a reasonable but not “quantified” time, taking into consideration all the circumstances, it is submitted is the proper one and is supported by authority.
