Baity v. Ciccone

379 F. Supp. 552, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7996
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 20, 1974
DocketCiv. A. 74CV109-S-WHB
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 379 F. Supp. 552 (Baity v. Ciccone) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baity v. Ciccone, 379 F. Supp. 552, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7996 (W.D. Mo. 1974).

Opinion

AMENDED ORDER OVERRULING PETITIONER’S EXCEPTIONS TO THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE AND FINAL JUDGMENT DISMISSING PETITION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS WITHOUT PREJUDICE

WILLIAM H. BECKER, Chief Judge.

Pursuant to the governing law and in accordance with Section B.lb.(5) of Local Rule 26 of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the United States Magistrate has submitted to the undersigned District Judge a report and recommenda *555 tion that the petition herein for a writ of habeas corpus be dismissed without prejudice.

Following the filing of a motion for an extension of time and the grant thereof by order of March 16, 1974, petitioner filed herein on March 21, 1974, his pro se exceptions to the report and recommendation of the United States Magistrate.

Upon filing the petition, petitioner was accorded an immediate preliminary evidentiary hearing before the Magistrate at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners on February 27, 1974. Petitioner appeared personally at that hearing and by his appointed counsel. Based on the evidence adduced at that hearing, the Magistrate made proposed findings of fact and concluded that the petition herein should be dismissed without prejudice to any relief which the petitioner may desire to seek from the Attorney General of the United States and to petitioner’s raising his claims in the courts of the State of Colorado, and the United States district and appellate courts in Colorado.

Petitioner seeks to enjoin the respondent from honoring any request by Colorado authorities to relinquish temporary custody of petitioner in order that petitioner may be tried on pending Colorado State charges. That request for injunctive relief is based on petitioner’s contention that “ . . . the State of Colorado has denied him the right to a speedy trial, due process of law, and has lost and forfeited its legal right to trial for lack of prosecution.” For reasons set forth hereinafter, it is concluded that granting the relief which petitioner seeks is beyond the power of this Court, and that this Court is without jurisdiction to determine on the merits the petition herein for a writ of habeas corpus.

Petitioner does not in this action challenge any effects suffered by him in this district because of the pending Colorado detainer. In addition, he states that he “ . . . does not seek at this time to litigate a federal defense to a criminal charge, but merely demonstrates that the ‘requesting state’ has so consistently and flagrantly and willfully violated the Constitutional and Statutory rights of the petitioner as to nullify its right to obtain ‘temporary custody’ of petitioner at this late date.” In support of this contention, petitioner generally relies on the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, 410 U.S. 484, 93 S.Ct. 1123, 35 L.Ed.2d 443 (1973).

In the Braden case, the Supreme Court held, under the facts presented therein, that a state holding a prisoner in immediate confinement acts as an agent for another state which has lodged a detainer against the prisoner with the custodial state, thereby enabling a prisoner in a custodial state to challenge, by means of federal habeas corpus proceedings, a detainer lodged against him by another state in which an untried criminal charge is pending. 1 In so holding, the Supreme Court made ambiguous and sometimes contradictory statements on concurrent jurisdiction and propriety of venue without expressly stating whether such venue and concurrent jurisdiction considerations applied only to the partic *556 ular facts presented in the Braden case itself. 2 The Supreme Court failed to distinguish whether the concurrency of jurisdiction and venue spoken of concerned challenges, by means of federal habeas corpus, to the untried criminal charge on which a detainer is based or challenges by means of federal habeas corpus to the adverse effects of a detainer.

It appears to be well settled that a prisoner may challenge any adverse effects suffered by him in his confinement in one state because of a- pending detainer requested by another state, by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court for the district wherein a prisoner is confined. Nelson v. George, 399 U.S. 224, 90 S.Ct. 1963, 26 L.Ed.2d 578 (1970); Bedwell v. Harris, 451 F.2d 122 (10th Cir. 1971).

In contrast, it appears that a prisoner seeking to challenge, by means of federal habeas corpus, the validity of an untried criminal charge on which a detain-er is based (as opposed to any effects on conditions of confinement), must file his petition in the federal district court for the district wherein the charge is pending. McEachern v. Henderson, 485 F.2d. 694 (5th Cir. 1973); Williams v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 315 F.Supp. 1261 (W.D.Mo.1970); but see, Norris v. State of Georgia, 357 F.Supp. 1200 (W. D.N.C.1973). Nothing which has since been stated in the Braden decision is contrary to this rule.

Thus, the concurrency of jurisdiction which is referred to in the Braden case must necessarily be considered as (1) jurisdiction in the state or district of confinement to adjudicate the allegedly illegal effects of the detainer on conditions of confinement there, and (2) jurisdiction in the state or district where the charges are pending to adjudicate either the question whether the pending charge is valid (because invalidation of the charge automatically removes the detainer) or whether the effects are legal, or both. 3

Furthermore, in order to possess jurisdiction in a case involving a challenge to an untried criminal charge on which a detainer is based, a federal district court must possess the power to grant relief, which would entail possessing the power to direct in personam, that the pending charge be dismissed. However, a federal district court in the state and district of confinement simply has no state officer within its jurisdiction whom it can direct to dismiss the pending charges, and there is no way of enforcing any writ to that effect which *557 might be issued. 4 It is true that in Norris v. State of Georgia, 357 F.Supp. 1200 (W.D.N.C.1973), a federal district court in North Carolina purported to issue an order directing the State of Georgia and the State of Louisiana to show cause why they “ . . . should not be permanently restrained from prosecution of the charges underlying the detainers.” Norris v. State of Georgia, 357 F.Supp. 1200, 1205 (W.D.N.C.1973). However, it is not apparent how such an injunction, if issued, could be enforced in the absence of in personam jurisdiction over the state officers.

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Related

Dodson v. Cooper
705 P.2d 500 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1985)
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635 P.2d 955 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1981)
Gerald D. Norris v. The State of Georgia
522 F.2d 1006 (Fourth Circuit, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
379 F. Supp. 552, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7996, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baity-v-ciccone-mowd-1974.