Hickman v. State

153 S.W.3d 16, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 828, 2004 WL 2563267
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 22, 2004
DocketE2002-01916-SC-R11-PC
StatusPublished
Cited by618 cases

This text of 153 S.W.3d 16 (Hickman v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hickman v. State, 153 S.W.3d 16, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 828, 2004 WL 2563267 (Tenn. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which E. RILEY ANDERSON, ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., JANICE M. HOLDER, and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ., joined.

We granted Roger L. Hickman permission to appeal to consider whether the trial court and Court of Criminal Appeals erred in dismissing his habeas corpus petition. Hickman’s petition, prepared with the aid of counsel, alleged that his. 1986 misdemeanor conviction, for which he received a ten-day suspended sentence, is void because the judgment does not affirmatively indicate that Hickman was represented by counsel or that he waived his right to counsel. We hold that the trial court and Court of Criminal Appeals properly dismissed the petition. The petition failed to comply with the prescribed statutory form, failed to allege that Hickman is “imprisoned or restrained of his liberty,” as required by Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-21-101 (2000), and failed to allege grounds for habeas corpus relief. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

I. Facts and Procedural History

On June 6, 1986, the petitioner, Roger L. Hickman, pleaded guilty in the Knox County General Sessions Court to posses *19 sion of marijuana and received a ten-day suspended sentence and a fifty dollar fine. The certified copy of the judgment does not indicate whether Hickman was represented by counsel or waived his right to counsel that day.

Almost sixteen years later, on February 25, 2002, Hickman, by and through counsel, filed a habeas corpus petition in the Knox County Criminal Court challenging the validity of his 1986 conviction. Hickman’s petition asserted that the 1986 conviction was void because the judgment did not affirmatively recite whether Hickman was represented by counsel or waived counsel. The petition sought to set aside the 1986 conviction “so [that] it may not be considered in a case in U.S. District Court.” Finding that the grounds alleged, if tme, rendered the conviction voidable, not void, the trial court dismissed the ha-beas corpus petition. Alternatively, the trial court concluded that, if treated as a petition for post-conviction relief, the petition was time-barred by the statute of limitations.

Hickman appealed, and in a split decision, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment. Emphasizing that the ten-day suspended sentence on the 1986 conviction had expired long before the habeas corpus petition was filed, the majority concluded that Hickman was not “imprisoned or restrained of his liberty” and therefore was not entitled to habeas corpus relief. The majority also pointed out that Hickman’s petition failed to comply with the statutory form and failed to provide statutorily mandated information. See TenmCode Ann. § 29-21-107 (2000). Finally, in a footnote, the majority indicated that if the defendant is presently in federal custody, as he alleged in another case attacking his 1986 conviction, then he is barred from obtaining habeas corpus relief by Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-21-102, which provides that “[pjersons committed or detained by virtue of process issued by a court of the United States, or a judge thereof ... are not entitled to the benefits of this writ.”

We granted the defendant’s application for permission to appeal and now affirm the judgment of the lower courts dismissing the habeas corpus petition.

II. Standard of Review

The determination of whether ha-beas corpus relief should be granted is a question of law. McLaney v. Bell, 59 S.W.3d 90, 92 (Tenn.2001). Accordingly, our review is de novo with no presumption of correctness accorded to the courts below. Id.

III. Analysis

In Tennessee, two distinct procedural avenues are available to collaterally attack a final judgment in a criminal case — habeas corpus and post-conviction petitions. Taylor v. State, 995 S.W.2d 78, 83 (Tenn.1999); Potts v. State, 833 S.W.2d 60, 62 (Tenn.1992). The right to seek ha-beas corpus relief is guaranteed by article I, section 15 of the Tennessee Constitution. 1 The procedures governing habeas corpus petitions are codified at Tennessee Code Annotated sections 29-21-101 through 29-21-130. This Court has previously acknowledged that “the procedural provisions of the habeas corpus statutes are mandatory and must be followed scrupulously.” Archer v. State, 851 S.W.2d 157, 165 (Tenn.1993) (citing Bateman v. *20 Smith, 183 Tenn. 541, 194 S.W.2d 336, 337 (1946)). Although there is no habeas corpus statute of limitations, the grounds upon which habeas corpus relief will be granted are narrow. Dixon v. Holland, 70 S.W.3d 33, 36 (Tenn.2002); See State v. Ritchie, 20 S.W.3d 624, 630 (Tenn.2000); Archer, 851 S.W.2d at 164. Habeas corpus relief is proper only if the petition establishes that the challenged judgment is void, as opposed to merely voidable. Taylor, 995 S.W.2d at 83; Potts, 833 S.W.2d at 62. A judgment is void “only when ‘[i]t appears upon the face of the judgment or the record of the proceedings upon which the judgment is rendered’ that a convicting court was without jurisdiction or authority to sentence a defendant, or that a defendant’s sentence of imprisonment or other restraint has expired.” Ritchie, 20 S.W.3d at 630 (quoting Archer, 851 S.W.2d at 164) (quoting State v. Galloway, 45 Tenn. (5 Cold.) 326, 336-37, 1868 WL 2122 (1868)). Furthermore, a sentence “imposed in direct contravention of a statute ... is void and illegal.” Stephenson v. Carlton, 28 S.W.3d 910, 911 (Tenn.2000). When the habeas corpus petition fails to demonstrate that the judgment is void, a trial court may properly dismiss the petition without a hearing. Tenn.Code Ann. § 29-21-109 (2000); Dixon, 70 S.W.3d at 36.

A petition for post-conviction relief is the procedural avenue for attacking voidable judgments. Taylor, 995 S.W.2d at 83; State v. McClintock, 732 S.W.2d 268, 272 (Tenn.1987). Recognizing the narrow scope of habeas corpus relief, in 1967 the Tennessee General Assembly enacted the Post-Conviction Procedures Act. 2 Post-conviction petitioners, unlike habeas corpus petitioners, may challenge convictions or sentences that are either void or voidable because of the abridgment of constitutional rights. Tenn.Code Ann.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 S.W.3d 16, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 828, 2004 WL 2563267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hickman-v-state-tenn-2004.