Curtis v. Bennett

131 N.W.2d 1, 256 Iowa 1164, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 678
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 20, 1964
Docket51380
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 131 N.W.2d 1 (Curtis v. Bennett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Curtis v. Bennett, 131 N.W.2d 1, 256 Iowa 1164, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 678 (iowa 1964).

Opinion

Larson, J.

Appellant, a prisoner in the state penitentiary at Fort Madison, petitioned the district court of Lee County for a writ of habeas corpus directed to the warden of the penitentiary. The court denied the writ and applicant has appealed.

On August 3, 1960, appellant was convicted of the crime of breaking and entering in the district court of Clinton County and was sentenced to an indeterminate term not to exceed ten years in the penitentiary. He raised no question as to the legality of that conviction and sentence.

Appellant was paroled from that institution July 20, 1962, and was placed in the employment of his father-in-law, a resident of East Moline, Illinois. On or about April 3, 1963, appellant’s parole was revoked by the issuing authority, the Iowa Board of Parole, and he was returned to the penitentiary.

On November 8, 1963, applicant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus alleging that he had been placed on parole in Illinois under a fraudulent parole agreement, that the agreement was not carried out under the provisions of an existing Iowa-Illinois Interstate Parole Compact, that his parole was wrongfully and illegally revoked and he was abducted from the State of Illinois by an Iowa parole agent. He further alleged that his constitutional rights were breached by a failure to provide him a hearing to test the legality of the revocation, and that he was not furnished counsel before the board’s action revoking his parole and returning him to the penitentiary. In this petition he asked that a full evidentiary hearing be granted him setting out what he contends the evidence would prove. While petitioner alleged some sort of conspiracy between an Iowa parole agent and his father-in-law to place him in the employment of his father-in-law, calling it “slavery”, he stated that this employment did not last for any length of time, and from the exhibits attached to his petition it appears he was subsequently employed by several other parties and that he was unemployed and on relief for some extended period of this parole. He also conceded that he was arrested on suspicion of burglary in East *1167 Moline, Illinois, but stated be was not formally charged with the crime. It is clear from this petition that the results of his parole or probation were not all the Iowa Board of Parole had hoped for or contemplated.

After appellant’s petition for a writ was denied without an evidentiary hearing on November 8, 1963, and he had appealed, he applied to the district court for appointment of counsel to assist him in this appeal. It was denied and he proceeded pro se.

I. Appellant raises two questions in this appeal — first, whether he had a constitutional right to notice and hearing before the board of parole could revoke his parole, and second, whether the statutes require such a notice and hearing before revoking his parole and before he may be returned to the institution from which he was paroled. Both of these questions have previously been answered in the negative in this state, although nationally on the constitutional question there is a split of authority. See 29 A. L. It.2d, annotation, 1076, 1077, 1078, 1084.

Iowa is among the majority of states which have consistently held that under statutes relating to revocation of probation or suspension of sentence which contain no express provision for notice and hearing, such a revocation without notice and hearing does not constitute a denial of due process. Pagano v. Bechly, 211 Iowa 1294, 232 N.W. 798; Ex parte Davis, 37 Cal.2d 872, 236 P.2d 579; People v. Dudley, 173 Mich. 389, 138 N.W. 1044; Re Kuney, 168 Misc. 285, 5 N. Y. S.2d 644. Also see Lint v. Bennett, 251 Iowa 1193, 104 N.W.2d 564, and citations. In Pagano v. Bechly, supra, it was the claim of plaintiff that he had vested rights by reason of his parole of which he could not be deprived under the constitution without notice and an opportunity to be heard, but this court said on page 1298 of 211 Iowa, page 800 of 232 N.W.: “It being a matter of grace and forbearance on the part of the sovereign, the defendant acquired no vested rights, and therefore, under the statutory provisions, [same as now], he would .not be entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard.”

In support of the view that there is no constitutional right to notice and hearing before revocation of suspension of sentence (Lint v. Bennett, supra), probation or parole (Pagano v. Bechly, *1168 supra), most courts hold that conditional liberty after conviction is an act of grace or clemency extended by the trial court or the state, conferring no vested rights upon the convict and subject to withdrawal at the discretion of the granting authority (our view), or that such conditional liberty does not free the convict from service of his sentence but merely extends the prison walls so as to allow him to serve such sentence outside the prison while remaining in the custody of the court or prison authorities and subject to their disciplinary control, or that the convicted person having been given full constitutional protection at the trial when he was convicted, the presumption of his innocence disappears and his status is that of an escaped felon, and the constitutional guaranties given a person accused of crime do not extend to subsequent enforcement of validly imposed punishments. Others hold conditional liberty after conviction is in the nature of a contract between the convicted person and the granting authority which the convicted person is free to accept or reject, the terms of which, including a provision for summary or ex parte revocation, are binding upon the convicted person on acceptance. These views, as well as the view that they create vested rights in the convict, were fully discussed in Anderson v. Alexander, warden, 191 Ore. 409, 229 P.2d 633, 230 P.2d 770, 29 A. L. R.2d 1051. Under any of these views we are satisfied petitioner failed to allege valid grounds for the writ.

II. The Iowa statutes do not provide for such a hearing before the parole board. The board is given no power to issue subpoenas or swear witnesses. There is nothing in the statutes which expressly or by implication requires the board to enter findings of fact of the kind made by judicial bodies. The absence of such provisions shows the legislature did not intend that the board should conduct any such hearings. In other words, the Iowa statutes contemplate that the board of parole shall be guided by the information which shall become available to it through its own investigative procedures. It is thus an administrative function rather than judicial. When the board grants a prisoner a parole, it does so as a matter of grace and not as a duty. It has the right to impose such conditions as it feels *1169 proper and, when tbe prisoner accepts the parole, he does so subject to its terms and conditions. He cannot later in a judicial hearing complain as to their fairness or propriety. Woodward v. Murdock, 124 Ind. 439, 24 N.E. 1047.

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Bluebook (online)
131 N.W.2d 1, 256 Iowa 1164, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curtis-v-bennett-iowa-1964.