193 Conn. 270 | Conn. | 1984
This appeal is from the dismissal of the plaintiff’s application for a writ of habeas corpus attacking his detention under an extradition warrant
The application for the writ alleges that the plaintiff, Ralph Parks, was arrested by the defendant, David Bourbeau, a Connecticut state trooper, on a rendition warrant issued by the governor of Connecticut under
On October 12, 1979, Parks was arrested in Florida and charged with burglary of a structure.
On April 3, 1981, Parks was given department of correction form CN1041 entitled “Notification of Warrant/ Detainer” which informed him that a warrant and/or detainer, issued on October 10, 1980, had been filed against him.
On appeal, Parks claims error in that: (1) he was not substantially charged with a crime in Florida as required by Connecticut General Statutes § 54-159 because the finding of probable cause made in Florida and appearing on the face of the supporting documents is “palpably illegal and insufficient”; (2) he is not a fugitive from justice because his Connecticut arrest, based on the Florida “Affidavit of Probable Cause” was illegal and voided the arrest; (3) he was substantially deprived of his fourteenth amendment due process rights when he was not arrested under the Connecticut rendition warrant until ten months after its issuance because the arresting authorities knew he was in custody and deliberately withheld serving the warrant; and (4) he was similarly deprived of his fourteenth amendment due process rights because, although required by General Statutes § 54-82c, he was not given prompt notice of the rendition warrant and was not advised of his right to request disposition of that warrant. We find no error.
In support of his claim that he is not substantially-charged with a crime
On the other hand, the defendant argues that the plaintiff is really attacking Florida’s judicial finding of probable cause. The defendant maintains that the plaintiff, in claiming he is not “substantially charged,” is actually saying that the presumption of regularity traditionally accorded the proceedings of the demanding state has been overcome when he claims that Florida’s finding of probable cause is “palpably illegal.”
“The Uniform Extradition Act implements the mandate of the extradition clause of the constitution of the United States, article four, § 2, clause 2, which provides: ‘A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.’ ” Barrita v. Blake, supra. An extradition hearing in the asylum state “ ‘is limited to four questions, namely, (a) whether the extradition documents on their face are in order, (b) whether the plaintiff has been charged with a crime in the charging state, (c) whether the plaintiff is the person named in the request for extradition and (d) whether the plaintiff is a fugitive. Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U.S. 433, 443n, 101 S. Ct. 703, 66 L. Ed. 2d 641 (1981); Michigan v. Doran, 439 U.S. 282, 289, 99 S. Ct. 530, 58 L. Ed. 2d 521 (1978).’ Narel v. Liburdi, [185 Conn. 562, 565, 441 A.2d 177 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928, 102 S. Ct. 1974, 72 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1982)]; see Glavin v. Warden, 163 Conn. 394, 401, 311 A.2d 86 (1972); Reynolds v. Conway, 161 Conn. 329, 336, 288 A.2d 77
The documents from Florida include not only an information charging the plaintiff with the crime of burglary of structure
II
The plaintiff next claims that he is not a fugitive from justice because his Connecticut arrest based upon the facts and circumstances set out in the “Affidavit of Probable Cause” from Florida was illegal and thereby voided and nullified the Connecticut arrest. This is the only basis upon which he claims he is not a fugitive under the act.
III
It is also claimed that there was a substantial deprivation of the plaintiffs fourteenth amendment due process rights because he was not arrested under the rendition warrant until ten months after its issuance even though the authorities knew he was in custody much of that time and still, he argues, deliberately withheld service of the warrant. Under this claim, he argues that once the governor’s warrant was issued, the state
On the other hand, the defendant argues that this state did not lose jurisdiction of the plaintiff, as claimed, when the Connecticut governor issued her rendition warrant and that the period of delay, which is much less than the plaintiff claims, did not in this case result in any denial of due process. Even assuming a due process violation, the defendant argues that the plaintiff has not claimed or demonstrated that he was prejudiced. He contests the claim of deliberate and calculated delay, pointing out that there was no such evidence although conceding that there was evidence that the course followed was that of state police policy in similar cases. Finally, he points out that the circumstances of the plaintiffs status as an escapee from jail, on October 2,1980, his being at large as an escapee until January 13, 1981, his return to jail to finish the sentence he had been serving and to await the disposition of the self-imposed escape charge, his sentencing on that charge on March 17, 1981, and serving that sentence imposed clearly show reasons for the delay in serving the rendition warrant. In any event, the defendant argues the delay does not attenuate the viability of the rendition warrant and extradition will not be barred.
We have already determined that the Florida documents satisfied the criteria laid down in Michigan v. Doran, supra. It follows that the governor’s rendition warrant properly issued on October 10,1980. The plaintiff argues, however, that the delay in serving the warrant was “deliberate, calculated and part of an established state police policy”
Bourbeau testified that the warrant was not served until August 4,1981, in accordance with the usual use of “the rule of thumb.” His explanation of that was “if [the fugitive’s] sentence in Connecticut was more than a year and he was going to be incarcerated more than a year . . . we would have made a report back to the [Connecticut] Attorney General’s office, [and] we probably would have recommended for the state of Florida
The plaintiff places great reliance on Application of Caudill, 352 P.2d 926 (Okla. Crim. 1960). This reliance is misplaced. In Caudill, two agents of the Oklahoma crime bureau arrested Caudill on May 14, 1959, as a
The Caudill court then framed the real issue in this fashion: “The decisive question as applied to the facts in this case is in whom was the authority to determine this issue of custody of the petitioner, the local Sheriff, or the Governor of the asylum state? In short, does the Sheriff have a right to temporarily delay by pocket veto the Governor’s extradition warrant until a local judgment and sentence is satisfied by the petitioner?” Application of Caudill, supra, 930. The Oklahoma court recognized that if the Oklahoma governor had desired to require the petitioner to complete the unsatisfied portion of his sentence, he could have done so, but it acknowledged that he did not do so. Significantly, while the Caudill court strongly condemned
Our examination of other cases involving similar issues further establishes that the plaintiffs claims directed to the conduct of authorities in the asylum state cannot be successfully asserted to bar Florida’s right to extradition. Courts have recognized that “no deterrent function is served by punishing a demanding state for the wrongful actions of the asylum state, ‘for the consequence of the illegal conduct of [the asylum state’s officials] is visited upon a sovereign that can do nothing to prevent or punish that conduct.’ People ex rel. Taylor v. Johnson, 47 Ill.2d 103, 105, 264 N.E.2d 198, 199 (1970); cf. State v. Harbaugh, 132 Vt. 569, 576, 326 A.2d 821, 825 (1974).” In re Saunders, 138 Vt. 259, 263, 415 A.2d 199 (1980).
Moreover, additional considerations require us to reject the plaintiff’s claims for relief. Initially, as the well-reasoned case of United States ex rel. McInery v. Shelley, supra, points out, there are critical differences between a criminal trial and an extradition proceeding. In McInery, the court cited with approval the case of People ex rel. Vasquez v. Pratt, 24 Ill. App. 3d 927, 930-31, 322 N.E.2d 74 (1975). It characterized the distinction made in Vasquez as follows: “[T]here is a critical difference between the nature of a criminal proceeding and an extradition proceeding. The [Vasquez\ court stated that evidentiary rules and constitutional principles of due process must be rigidly adhered to in the criminal trial since its purpose is to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. Extradition, however, is a right which belongs to the demanding state. It contemplates only a summary and ministerial proceeding, the primary purpose of which is to return a fugitive to the demanding state so that he can stand trial.”
Further, in habeas corpus review of extradition proceedings, we look to the legality of the cause for detention existing at the time of the arrest on the governor’s rendition warrant which, “if otherwise valid, supplies sound, present legal cause even though there may have been prior illegality. See Stallings v. Splain [253 U.S. 339, 343, 40 S. Ct. 537, 64 L. Ed. 940 (1920)]; In re Bryant [129 Vt. 302, 366, 276 A.2d 628 (1971)].” In re Brown, 346 N.E.2d 830, 832 (Mass. 1976). Because we have already determined that the governor’s rendition warrant satisfied the criteria of Michigan v. Doran, supra, once that warrant was executed any claimed prior illegality on the part of Connecticut authorities concerning extradition became moot. See, e.g., In re Bryant, 129 Vt. 302, 366, 276 A.2d 628 (1971); Alkerton v. Wingenbach, 217 N.W.2d 787, 791 (N.D. 1974), citing, inter alia, Glavin v. Warden, 163 Conn. 394, 311 A.2d 86 (1972); Levick v. Smedley, 553 P.2d 482, 484 (Alaska 1976); Stynchcombe v. Whitley, 241 Ga. 776, 242 S.E.2d 720 (1978); Commonwealth v. Brown, 421 A.2d 1131, 1134 (Pa. Super. 1980); People ex rel. Vasquez v. Pratt, supra.
Our conclusion that extradition is not barred is consistent with the teachings of Michigan v. Doran and its progeny which “have reaffirmed the narrow compass of issues which may be considered in a challenge to extradition by habeas proceedings in the asylum state. See Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U.S. 433, 101 S. Ct. 703, 709 n.11, 66 L. Ed. 2d 641 [1981]; Pacileo v. Walker, 449 U.S. 86, 101 S. Ct. 308, 66 L. Ed. 2d 304 (per curiam) [1980].” Pfaff v. Wells, 648 F.2d 689, 692 (10th Cir. 1981). Pfaff specifically said, ‘Michigan v. Doran defines the issues which a federal court may address in a habeas action resisting extradition.” Pfaff
The authorities we have set out lead us to the following conclusions: Even assuming the plaintiffs claim that he was substantially deprived of his fourteenth amend
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The Uniform Criminal Extradition Act is set out in the Connecticut General Statutes §§ 54-157 through 54-185.
The plaintiff timely filed his application for the writ of habeas corpus.
The Florida documents reveal that this charge involved his stealing a television from a motel room.
At the evidentiary hearing on the application for the writ, Robert Gillis, the deputy warden at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, testified that when Parks was notified of this, he refused to sign a receipt of the notification. Parks did not testify at the hearing.
General Statutes § 54-159, entitled “Requirements for recognition of extradition demand” provides in relevant part: “No demand for the extradition of a person charged with crime in another state shall be recognized by the governor unless in writing alleging . . . that the accused was present in the demanding state at the time of the commission of the alleged crime, and that thereafter he fled from the state, and accompanied by a copy of an indictment found or by information supported by affidavit in the state having jurisdiction of the crime, or by a copy of an affidavit made before a magistrate there, together with a copy of any warrant which was issued thereupon; or by a copy of a judgment of conviction or of a sentence imposed in execution thereof, together with a statement by the executive authority of the demanding state that the person claimed has escaped from confinement or has broken the terms of his bail, probation or parole. The indictment, information or affidavit made before the magistrate must substantially charge the person demanded with having committed a crime under the law of that state . . . .”
The information articulates § 810.02 as the Florida statutory referent for the crime of burglary of a structure. The Florida judicial officer who made the finding of probable cause also certified that the crime constitutes a felony in the state of Florida.
Because the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act is a uniform law, decisions from other states provide guidance. See Hill v. Blake, 186 Conn. 404, 441 A.2d 843 (1982).
In addition, we must reject the plaintiff’s claim that Ms extradition violates his right to substantive due process guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution and article first, §§ 8 and 9, of the Connecticut constitution. He claims that this is so because, despite the full faith and credit clause in article IV, § 1, and the extradition clause in article IV, § 2, of the United States constitution, the governor of Connecticut is obligated to protect people of this state from due process violations of the United States and Connecticut constitutions. The limitations imposed upon the scope of inquiry by courts of an asylum state by Michigan v. Doran, 439 U.S. 282, 99 S. Ct. 530, 58 L. Ed. 2d 521 (1978), have already been set out above; that alone answers this due process claim. Moreover, the petitioner may properly raise this claim in Florida.
The inquiry whether a plaintiff is a fugitive from justice is one of fact which is to be resolved by the governor of the asylum state. Glavin v. Warden, 163 Conn. 394, 396, 311 A.2d 86 (1972). We have no need to decide this because of the nature of the plaintiff’s claim that he is not a fugitive predicated as it is on his first claim of error which we have found to be without merit.
In connection with the foregoing claims is also the plaintiffs claim that because he was not given prompt notice of the rendition warrant and not advised of his right to request disposition of this warrant which, he argues, was mandated by General Statutes § 54-82c, he was substantially deprived
General Statutes § 54-82c, which is entitled “Prisoner’s right to speedy trail on pending charges” provides in part: “(a) Whenever a person has entered upon a term of imprisonment in a correctional institution of this state and, during the continuance of the term of imprisonment, there is pending in this state any untried indictment or information against such prisoner, he shall be brought to trial within one hundred twenty days after he has caused to be delivered, to the state’s attorney or assistant state’s attorney of the judicial district or geographical area, in which the indictment or information is pending, and to the appropriate court, written notice of the place of his imprisonment and his request for final disposition to be made of the indictment or information. . . .
“(c) The warden, community correctional center administrator or other official having custody of the prisoner shall promptly inform him in writing of the source and contents of any untried indictment or information against him concerning which the warden, administrator or other official has knowledge and of his right to make a request for final disposition thereof. ...”
It is apparent that this statute applies to a person imprisoned in Connecticut when there is pending in Connecticut an untried indictment or information against him. Such is not the case here, and § 54-82c is inapplicable.
Likewise, we also need not reach his claim under article III (c) of the “Agreement on Detainers”; General Statutes § 54-186; which provides:
“The warden, commissioner of correction or other official having custody of the prisoner shall promptly inform him of the source and contents of
This is so for at least two reasons. First, we note that the plaintiff’s brief concedes that he was “given” the “Notification of Warrant/Detainer” form and his “claim” is that this notification “seemed as if it was a detainer.” Significantly, what it seemed like to him cannot really be determined because he chose not to testify at the habeas hearing and, in any event, on the record before us he did absolutely nothing about it at all after the notification was given him on April 3, 1981. Even if we assume, arguendo, that it was a detainer, then under article III of the agreement, i.e., General Statutes § 54-186, he could have utilized that triggering mechanism available to him but it is clear that on April 3, 1981, he even refused to acknowledge that he was given the notification. In any event, any violation of the expeditious and orderly disposition of any untried indictments, informations or complaints in another jurisdiction which the interstate detainer agreement seeks to accomplish within its parameters may properly be addressed in Florida. See Narel v. Liburdi, 185 Conn. 562, 441 A.2d 177 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928, 102 S. Ct. 1974, 72 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1982). Second, if we assume, arguendo, that the detainer agreement was applicable, even if the plaintiff’s custodian in Connecticut did not inform the plaintiff of the source and contents of a detainer lodged against him and inform him of his right to make a request for a final disposition of the pending charge in the foreign jurisdiction; General Statutes § 54-186, article III (c); that still would not bar extradition as long as the requisition documents satisfied the four criteria of Michigan v. Doran, 439 U.S. 282, 99 S. Ct. 530, 58 L. Ed. 2d 521 (1978).
In Narel v. Liburdi, supra, we concluded that extradition was proper even where the Connecticut custodian of the habeas plaintiff refused, after a triggering request by the plaintiff, to notify the state of Virginia of his desire for a prompt disposition of a Virginia charge pursuant to interstate agreement on detainers. The case of the plaintiff Parks, insofar as he makes a claim under the interstate agreement on detainers, is much weaker than that in Narel v. Liburdi, supra.
There is no evidence that the alleged “deliberate or calculated” component of this claim was contrived or planned as to this plaintiff who did, as the evidence disclosed, escape from jail after Connecticut authorities had conducted their investigation and asked the governor of Connecticut to issue her rendition warrant.
No elaborate discussion is necessary to point out that the unique self-help undertaken by the plaintiff by his escape on October 2,1980, prevented any service upon him of that warrant until January 13, 1981.
During questioning of Bourbeau by the court, the following took place: “The Court: Is there any reason you make a distinction between a sentence of six months and ten years?
“The Witness: We usually use the rule of thumb, if it’s reasonable. If his sentence was more than a year and he was going to be incarcerated more than a year, in other words there is a difference of giving a man a year and he is out in four months, but if he is going to be more than a year we would have made a report back to the Attorney General’s office, we probably would have recommended for the state of Florida that they file a detainer.
“The Court: Your testimony is that if the sentence is more than a year you would report back to Florida, at which time they would then lodge a retainer [sic]?
“The Witness: Yes.
“The Court: Although you were under a direction by the governor at that time to arrest him, is that correct?
“The Witness: That’s correct.”
The language of the Oklahoma statute tracks the language of Connecticut General Statutes § 54-170, which is entitled “Arrest without a warrant” and provides: “The arrest of a person may be lawfully made also by any peace officer or a private person, without a warrant, upon reasonable information that the accused stands charged in the courts of a state with a crime punishable by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, but when so arrested the accused shall be taken before such a judge with all practicable speed and complaint shall be made against him under oath setting forth the ground for the arrest as in section 54-169; and thereafter his answer shall be heard as if he had been arrested on a warrant.”
The Caudill court, in criticizing the local sheriffs conduct, said: “In any event, it was not for the local Sheriff to pigeon-hole the order of the highest executive authority of the state. Once the Governor had spoken, it was no longer within the Sheriffs power to ignore his order. What had been done was within the Governor’s power to do. . . . The Sheriff’s act in holding petitioner after issuance of the Governor’s extradition warrant
This case must be distinguished from those cases arising under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers; see General Statutes § 54-186; such as Giardino v. Bourbeau, 193 Conn. 116, 475 A.2d 298 (1984) and Narel v. Liburdi, 185 Conn. 562, 441 A.2d 177 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928, 102 S. Ct. 1974, 72 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1982), where officials in the demanding and asylum states are regarded as agents for each other by virtue of having so agreed by being parties to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers.
The McInery court referred to Application of Caudill, 352 P.2d 926 (Okla. Crim. 1960), which was relied upon by petitioner McInery. In doing so, it observed that “[a]lthough the Caudill court strongly condemned the sheriff’s [Oklahoma] actions, the court ordered that the fugitive’s extradition be effected immediately—and not that the extradition be stopped.” United States ex rel. McInery v. Shelley, 524 F. Sup. 499, 501 n.5 (N.D. Ill. 1981). The same court also said: “Similarly, in Lott v. Heyd, 315 F.2d 350 (5th Cir. 1963), a fugitive sought habeas corpus relief claiming that Louisiana, the asylum state, had held him beyond the statutory period permitted to await extradition to Mississippi, the demanding state. The court said that even if the appellant had been held for a time without legal authority, ‘no federally protected rights were violated and to hold that Louisiana’s alleged misbehavior deprived Mississippi of its Constitutional right to the fugitive would amount to allowing the State of Louisiana to amend the Constitution.’ 315 F.2d at 351. The appellant was ordered to be extradited.” United States ex rel. McInery v. Shelley, supra.