Jimmie D. Oyler v. Fred Allenbrand and the Attorney General of Kansas

23 F.3d 292, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8999, 1994 WL 156941
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 28, 1994
Docket93-3192
StatusPublished
Cited by105 cases

This text of 23 F.3d 292 (Jimmie D. Oyler v. Fred Allenbrand and the Attorney General of Kansas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Jimmie D. Oyler v. Fred Allenbrand and the Attorney General of Kansas, 23 F.3d 292, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8999, 1994 WL 156941 (10th Cir. 1994).

Opinion

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed.R.App.P. 34(a); 10th Cir.R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore ordered ' submitted without oral argument.

Petitioner Jimmie D. Oyler, a Native American, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, alleging error in that court’s conclusion that Kansas has criminal jurisdiction over him. He further contends that the cigarette tax laws of Kansas are regulatory and thus unenforceable against him, that the tax scheme violates his civil rights, and that he was denied his rights to a jury trial and to present certain evidence to the trial court. In denying the petition, the district court held that the Kansas Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3243, empowered the State of Kansas to exercise criminal jurisdiction over petitioner despite the contrary language of the Treaty with the Shawnee, 1831 (Shawnee Treaty). The district court also dismissed petitioner’s civil rights claims as inappropriate for habeas relief. Oyler v. Allenbrand, 815 F.Supp. 1441, 1444 (D.Kan.1993). Because we agree with the legal conclusions reached by the district court regarding the scope of Kansas’ criminal jurisdiction and petitioner’s civil rights claims, we affirm that portion of the district court’s order. We remand the remainder of the ease, however, in order that the district court may consider whether the additional claims raised by' petitioner have been exhausted or are proeedurally barred.

Petitioner, a Loyal Shawnee by roll and a tribal member of the Cherokee as a Cherokee Shawnee, operated a smokeshop on his restricted Indian allotment on land classified as “Indian country.” See 18 U.S.C. § 1151. 1 During December 1989 and January 1990, agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, working undercover, purchased cigarettes at petitioner’s smokeshop. None of the cigarettes had Kansas tax stamps, the purchasers did not pay sales tax, and petitioner did not ask the agents if they were Indians. Petitioner was convicted of three counts of possessing more than two hundred cigarettes without the requisite tax stamp in violation of Kan.Stat.Ann. §§ 79-3321 and 79-3322, and three counts of the sale of cigarettes at retail that did not bear the Kansas tax stamp in violation of those same statutes. All of these offenses are misdemeanors. Petitioner was sentenced to 180 days in jail and fined $2,250.

Petitioner’s conviction was upheld by the Kansas Court of Appeals. State v. Oyler, 15 Kan.App.2d 78, 803 P.2d 581 (1990). The Kansas Supreme Court denied review. In April 1991, before petitioner began to serve his sentence, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. Shortly thereafter, petitioner’s sentence was modified to two years’ probation and payment of the fine. He has now completed his probation.

We first address the issue of our habeas jurisdiction. See McGeorge v. Continental Airlines, Inc., 871 F.2d 952, 953 (10th Cir.1989) (court has a duty to inquire into its own jurisdiction). The federal habeas statute requires a plaintiff to be in custody when a petition for habeas corpus is filed. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). Here, petitioner filed his habeas petition while still on bond pending appeal, but before his sentence had been reduced to probation and before he began to serve that probation. We deem this filing to *294 have occurred while petitioner was “in custody.” See Hensley v. Municipal Ct., 411 U.S. 345, 345-6, 93 S.Ct. 1571, 1571-72, 36 L.Ed.2d 294 (1973) (person released on his own recognizance is “in custody” for purpose of habeas); see also United States ex rel. Grundset v. Franzen, 675 F.2d 870, 872 (7th Cir.1982) (custody requirement satisfied by person on bail pending final disposition of his case). “Once federal jurisdiction is thus established, plaintiff’s] subsequent release [has] no effect on that jurisdiction.” Nakell v. Attorney General, 15 F.3d 319, 323 (4th Cir.1994).

That conclusion, however, does not completely resolve the jurisdictional inquiry. Because petitioner has now served all of his probation, a separate and distinct jurisdictional question arises involving the issue of mootness. “Generally, a case becomes moot when the issues presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.” Id. at 322 (citing Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 481, 102 S.Ct. 1181, 1183, 71 L.Ed.2d 353 (1982)) (internal quotes omitted). Mootness deprives a court of jurisdiction. New Mexico Env’t Dep’t v. Foulston (In re L.F. Jennings Oil Co.), 4 F.3d 887, 888 (10th Cir.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 1372, 128 L.Ed.2d 48 (1994). An exception to the mootness doctrine occurs, however, in instances where collateral consequences from a judicial decision give a party a sufficient stake in the outcome of the case. Nakell, 15 F.3d at 322.

In Lane v. Williams, 455 U.S. 624, 102 S.Ct. 1322, 71 L.Ed.2d 508 (1982), the Court noted with approval its earlier decisions holding that a criminal case is moot “ ‘only if it is shown that there is no possibility that any collateral legal consequences will be imposed on the basis of the challenged conviction.’” Id. at 632, 102 S.Ct. at 1327 (quoting Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 57, 88 S.Ct. 1889, 1900, 20 L.Ed.2d 917 (1968)); see also Walker v. McLain, 768 F.2d 1181, 1183 (10th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1061, 106 S.Ct. 805, 88 L.Ed.2d 781 (1986). The Seventh Circuit applied the Lane standard in Franzen and held that the possibility of collateral consequences arising from a misdemeanor conviction, such as the chance that a later sentence might be enhanced because of an earlier misdemeanor conviction or that such a conviction could be used in some jurisdictions to impeach the petitioner in later proceedings, is sufficient to overcome mootness. Franzen, 675 F.2d at 873.

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23 F.3d 292, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8999, 1994 WL 156941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jimmie-d-oyler-v-fred-allenbrand-and-the-attorney-general-of-kansas-ca10-1994.