In Re Dacus

337 S.W.3d 501, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 2596, 2011 WL 1331850
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 4, 2011
Docket02-10-00420-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 337 S.W.3d 501 (In Re Dacus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Dacus, 337 S.W.3d 501, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 2596, 2011 WL 1331850 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

ANNE GARDNER, Justice.

Relator Billy Earl Dacus seeks writs of mandamus and prohibition directing the Honorable Carmen Rivera-Worley of the 16th Judicial District Court of Denton County, Texas, to dismiss with prejudice the State’s 2008 indictment charging him with murder. The State is the real party in interest. Relator asserts that the prohibition against double jeopardy and the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (IADA) precludes the State from pursuing this murder charge. The State filed a response in opposition. Based on the filings before us, 1 we conditionally grant Relator mandamus and prohibition relief under the IADA because he has established that (1) he has no other adequate legal remedy and that (2) he has a “clear right to the relief sought.” 2 See State ex rel. Lykos v. Fine, 330 S.W.3d 904, 907 (Tex.Crim.App.2011).

I. Background

The IADA is a congressionally-sane-tioned compact between the federal gov- *503 eminent and the states. See Alabama v. Bozeman, 533 U.S. 146, 148, 121 S.Ct. 2079, 2082, 150 L.Ed.2d 188 (2001) (citing 18 U.S.C.App. 2 § 2). It creates uniform and cooperative procedures to be used for lodging and executing a detainer when one state seeks to obtain temporary custody of, and prosecute, a prisoner in another state or in a federal facility. Id. Texas has adopted the IADA in article 51.14 of the code of criminal procedure. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 51.14 (Vernon 2006); State v. Votta, 299 S.W.3d 130, 134-35 (Tex.Crim.App.2009). As relevant here, a state that obtains a prisoner under the IADA “shall” commence trial within 120 days of his arrival unless the trial date is extended for good cause. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 51.14, Art. IV(c). If the State “return[s]” the prisoner to his “original place of imprisonment” before holding trial on the indictment that formed the basis of the detainer, that indictment “shall” be dismissed with prejudice. Id. art. 51.14, Art. IV(e).

In the instant case, the State indicted Relator on unrelated theft and capital murder charges in 1983. Because Relator was serving time in federal prison (in Kansas) at that time, the State lodged an IADA detainer against him on both the theft and capital murder charges and secured his temporary custody on December 1, 1983. Four days later, Relator pleaded guilty to the theft charge and received a thirty-year sentence to run concurrently with his forty-five-year federal sentence. Several days later, the State dismissed the capital murder charge and returned Relator to federal custody. Twenty-five years later, the State charged Relator with murder based on the same criminal transaction as the 1983 capital murder charge.

In March and June 2010, Respondent conducted hearings on Relator’s motion to quash the 2008 indictment. In denying Relator’s requested relief, Respondent entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. In briefing to this court, Relator and the State agree that certain, undisputed facts can be derived from Respondent’s October 27, 2010 order:

• On January 9, 1983, the State (through the Denton County District Attorney’s Office) charged Relator with the unrelated offenses of theft and capital murder.
• At the time of the 1983 indictment, Relator was in federal custody on an unrelated bank robbery charge. The State lodged a detainer against Relator under the IADA and obtained his temporary custody on December 1, 1983, to face the theft and capital murder charges.
• On December 5, 1983, Relator pleaded guilty to the State’s theft charge and received a thirty-year prison sentence, to run concurrently with his forty-five-year federal sentence.
On December 12, 1983, the State dismissed the capital murder charge and subsequently returned Relator to federal custody. The State’s Motion to . Dismiss does not specify whether the case was dismissed with or without prejudice. The ground listed for dismissal was that the defendant “was convicted in another case.”
• On November 13, 2008, the State indicted Relator for murder (based- on the same criminal transaction that had earlier formed the basis of the 1983 capital murder charge). 3
*504 • On April 2, 2009, the State arrested Relator, who had been released from federal custody.

Respondent concluded (1) that the IADA provides no legal basis to bar the State from prosecuting Relator on the current murder charge and (2) that the State’s indictment does not violate any of the IADA provisions because “the Court has no case law supporting the Defendant’s interpretation of the IAD[A] and the Court finds that the State’s actions do not warrant any interpretive expansion of the IAD[A].”

II. Standard of Review

Relator asks for both mandamus and prohibition relief. The “essential difference” between a writ of prohibition and a writ of mandamus is that

the former issues to prevent the commission of a future act whereas the latter operates to undo or nullify an act already performed; the former will not be granted when the act sought to be prevented is already done, but will lie when such an act is not a full, complete and accomplished judicial act.

Wade v. Mays, 689 S.W.2d 893, 897 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). We address both types of relief as Relator seeks to have us (1) vacate Respondent’s order denying Relator’s motion to quash the 2008 indictment and (2) order Respondent to dismiss the 2008 indictment (to prevent prosecution of the 2008 murder charge against him).

The traditional test for determining whether mandamus or prohibition relief is appropriate requires Relator to establish (1) that he has no other adequate legal remedy to redress his alleged harm and (2) that what he seeks to compel is a ministerial act, not involving a discretionary or judicial decision. 4 Levario, 306 S.W.3d at 320. The court of criminal appeals has held that the “ministerial act” requirement “is satisfied if the relator can show he has ‘a clear right to relief sought’ — that is to say, ‘when the facts and circumstances dictate but one rational decision’ under unequivocal, well-settled (i.e., from extant statutory, constitutional, or case law sources), and clearly controlling legal principles.” Id. at 320 n. 6 (quoting State ex rel. Young v. Sixth Judicial Dist. Court of Appeals, 236 S.W.3d 207, 210 (Tex.Crim.App.2007)); see Lykos, 330 S.W.3d at 907.

III.

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Bluebook (online)
337 S.W.3d 501, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 2596, 2011 WL 1331850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-dacus-texapp-2011.