Allen v. Johnston

575 F. Supp. 935, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11802
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedNovember 10, 1983
DocketCiv. No. 83-611-A
StatusPublished

This text of 575 F. Supp. 935 (Allen v. Johnston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Johnston, 575 F. Supp. 935, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11802 (S.D. Iowa 1983).

Opinion

RULING SUPPORTING ORDER GRANTING TEMPORARY STAY

STUART, Chief Judge.

The Court has before it plaintiffs Complaint, Application for Injunction Staying Proceeding in Iowa District Court, and Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis.1 This Court has jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(a)(3). A hearing was held on November 7, at which both parties argued the issue whether it would be legally proper for this Court to stay the November 8 state court criminal trial of plaintiff.

Billy Junior Allen was scheduled to go to trial in the Iowa District Court in and for Polk County on a first-degree burglary charge on November 8, 1983. The first-degree burglary charge arose from the same incident that had led to plaintiffs trial and acquittal on first-degree felony murder charges in November 1982. On September 16, 1983, plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the first-degree burglary charge, contending that his trial on that charge would violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by placing him in jeopardy twice for the same offense. The Iowa District Court in and for Polk County, reaching the merits of plaintiffs double jeopardy contention, denied the motion on November 3.

Plaintiff then attempted to obtain review in the Iowa Supreme Court by first filing an application for discretionary review on November 3 pursuant to Iowa Code § 814.-6(2) (1983). On November 4 the Iowa Supreme Court denied the application for discretionary review. Next, plaintiff filed a notice of appeal on November 7 pursuant to Iowa Code § 814.6(l)(a) (1983).2 The Iowa Supreme Court, speaking through Chief Justice W.W. Reynoldson, dismissed the notice of appeal without prejudice to plaintiffs right to reassert the double jeopardy contention on direct appeal in the event of an adverse trial court judgment.

This action was then commenced late in the afternoon of November 7 by plaintiffs filing in this Court (1) a complaint alleging a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and (2) an application for injunction to stay the impending state court proceedings. Before plaintiffs trial commenced, this Court entered an Order granting plaintiff a temporary stay of the state court proceedings, stating that this written opinion supporting the Order would be subsequently filed.

Plaintiff alleges the state prosecutor chose to submit first-degree robbery as the felony-predicate underlying the felony-murder charge of which he was acquitted in November 1982. On the facts of his alleged offense, plaintiff asserts the state prosecutor could have submitted first-degree burglary as the felony-predicate. Thus, plaintiff contends first-degree bur[937]*937glary should be determined to have been an offense included in the felony-murder charge.

“A federal lawsuit to stop a prosecution in a state court is a serious matter.” Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 42, 91 S.Ct. 746, 749, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971). In Younger, the United States Supreme Court re-examined the principles governing federal judicial intervention in pending state prosecutions and reaffirmed a policy of equitable restraint in such matters. The equitable restraint policy explained in Younger and its progeny is founded on “the basic doctrine of equity jurisprudence that courts of equity should not act, and particularly should not act to restrain a criminal prosecution, when the moving party has an adequate remedy at law and will not suffer irreparable injury if denied equitable relief.” Id. at 43-44, 91 S.Ct. at 750. The Younger Court found that the equitable restraint policy is reinforced .by principles of federalism in circumstances in which a federal court is asked to interfere with a pending state prosecution. Id. at 44, 91 S.Ct. at 750. Thus, the Court held that, unless a party can show “bad faith” and “harassment” by state prosecutors or other “extraordinary circumstances in which the necessary irreparable injury can be shown even in the absence of the usual prerequisites of bad faith and harassment,” a federal court must not enjoin a pending state prosecution. Id. at 53-54, 91 S.Ct. at 755.

The Iowa District Court in and for Polk County found against plaintiff on his claim of harassment and that claim is not raised in this action. Thus, absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances, this Court could not have stayed plaintiff’s second trial.

The United States Supreme Court has refined the meaning of extraordinary circumstances warranting federal equitable relief against pending state prosecutions. In Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S.Ct. 1524, 44 L.Ed.2d 15 (1975), the Court emphasized that extraordinary circumstances “must be ‘extraordinary’ in the sense of creating an extraordinarily pressing need for immediate federal equitable relief, not merely in the sense of presenting a highly unusual factual situation.” Id. at 125, 95 S.Ct. at 1531. The Kugler Court also noted that it was impossible to foresee and clearly define the circumstances that would create a threat of great, immediate, and irreparable injury, warranting federal equitable intervention. Id. at 124-25, 95 S.Ct. at 1530-31.

The Court determines that extraordinary circumstances exist in this case because the constitutional right not to be tried twice for the same offense, which plaintiff seeks to vindicate, could be lost if plaintiff were required to go to trial, and await final judgment and sentencing, before he would be entitled to appellate review of the denial of his motion to dismiss.3 Furthermore, plaintiff has exhausted all available state procedures for asserting his double jeopardy contention through which he could avoid the second trial. Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977), offers strong support for the issuance of a temporary stay.

In Abney the issue before the United States Supreme Court was whether a denial of a motion to dismiss a federal indictment on double jeopardy grounds constituted a “final decision,” as that term is used at 28 U.S.C. § 1291. In deciding that the denial of the motion to dismiss was a final decision, although not a final judgment, the Court stated:

In the first place there can be no doubt that such orders constitute a complete, formal, and, in the trial court, final rejection of a criminal defendant’s double jeopardy claim. There are simply no further steps that can be taken in the District Court to avoid the trial the defendant maintains is barred by the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee____
[938]

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Related

Younger v. Harris
401 U.S. 37 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Harris v. Washington
404 U.S. 55 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Kugler v. Helfant
421 U.S. 117 (Supreme Court, 1975)
Abney v. United States
431 U.S. 651 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Bullington v. Missouri
451 U.S. 430 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Mitchum v. Foster
407 U.S. 225 (Supreme Court, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
575 F. Supp. 935, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-johnston-iasd-1983.