State of Tennessee v. Anthony Wayne Lankford and Christopher Arthur McKeon

51 S.W.3d 212, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 138
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 23, 2001
DocketW2000-00708-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 51 S.W.3d 212 (State of Tennessee v. Anthony Wayne Lankford and Christopher Arthur McKeon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Tennessee v. Anthony Wayne Lankford and Christopher Arthur McKeon, 51 S.W.3d 212, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 138 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

GLENN, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which RILEY and WILLIAMS, JJ., joined.

This case raises issues of first impression in Tennessee. The defendants are convicted felons from Montana who were sent to serve portions of their Montana sentences at a private, for-profit prison facility in Tennessee. Following their escape from the Tennessee facility, the defendants were each convicted of one count of escape, in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-16-606. The defendants now appeal their convictions, raising two interrelated issues: 1) whether Tennessee’s escape statute makes it a crime for a prisoner who has not been convicted *214 under Tennessee law to escape from a private prison in this state; and 2) whether they were unlawfully imprisoned in Tennessee. After a thorough review of applicable law, we conclude that Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-16-605, by its plain language, applies to the escape of an out-of-state prisoner from a private prison facility in this state. We further conclude that the defendants, duly convicted of crimes in Montana and incarcerated at the private prison pursuant to a contract between the Montana Department of Corrections and a private prison company, were not unlawfully imprisoned in Tennessee. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The defendants are prisoners from Montana who were convicted of escaping from a private prison facility in Tennessee, in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-16-605. Following the denial of their motions for a new trial, the defendants each filed a timely appeal to this court, both raising essentially the following two issues:

I. Whether Tennessee’s escape statute, Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-16-605, is applicable to an escape from a private prison facility by an out-of-state prisoner who has not been convicted of any crime in Tennessee; and
II. Whether the defendants were unlawfully imprisoned in Tennessee.

After our review of the record and applicable law, we conclude that Tennessee’s escape statute is broad enough to cover the escape from a private prison facility of an out-of-state prisoner, and that the defendants were not unlawfully incarcerated in Tennessee. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of convictions.

FACTS

In 1997, in response to prison overcrowding, the Montana Department of Corrections, pursuant to authority granted to it by the Montana Legislature, contracted with Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”), a private for-profit prison company, to have several hundred Montana prisoners serve a portion of their sentences at CCA’s West Tennessee Detention Facility, located in Mason, Tipton County, Tennessee. The defendants, Anthony Wayne Lankford and Christopher Arthur McKeon, were among a group transferred under the terms of the contract from Montana State Prison to the Mason facility in the fall of 1997. Lank-ford, who had been convicted in Montana of one count of deliberate homicide by use of a dangerous weapon and one count of attempted deliberate homicide by use of a dangerous weapon, was serving a 220 year sentence. McKeon, convicted in Montana of armed robbery and theft, was serving a fifty-year sentence. In addition, McKeon owed time to Oklahoma and Iowa for separate offenses committed in those states.

On the afternoon of May 20, 1999, the defendants scaled two razor wire perimeter fences at the southern end of the facility and disappeared into a nearby wooded area. Despite a massive manhunt coordinated by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and involving a number of local and state law enforcement agencies, the defendants were not recaptured until one week later. Both were subsequently indicted for escape from a penal institution, in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-16-605.

Trial was held on January 10, 2000. Steven Dotson, former assistant warden of the West Tennessee Detention Facility, identified the defendants as two inmates who had escaped from the prison on May 20, 1999, and who had been recaptured in Shelby County, Tennessee, on May 27, 1999. Defendant Christopher McKeon *215 testified that he had never agreed to the transfer from Montana to Tennessee, and that his intention in leaving the facility had been to return to Montana. His understanding of Montana law was that once sentenced to Montana State Prison, he was entitled to remain there until “parole, discharge, or death.” McKeon complained that the Tennessee facility monitored inmate telephone calls, did not offer a course he was required to complete before meeting with the Montana Parole Board, and paid inmates lower wages than those paid at Montana State Prison.

The jury returned guilty verdicts for both defendants. The trial court sentenced Lankford as a Range I, standard offender to two years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, to be served consecutively to the Montana sentence he was currently serving. McKeon was sentenced as a multiple, Range II offender to four years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, to be served consecutively to his prior sentences in Montana, Oklahoma, and Iowa.

ANALYSIS

I. Applicability of Escape Statute

The defendants argue that the escape statute does not make it an offense for a Montana prisoner to escape from a private prison. Tennessee’s escape statute reads:

(a) It is unlawful for any person arrested for, charged with, or convicted of an offense to escape from a penal institution, as defined in § 39-16-601.

TenmCode Ann. § 39-16-605(a) (1997). Section 39-16-601 reads, in pertinent part:

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
[[Image here]]
(2)“Custody” means under arrest by a law enforcement officer or under restraint by a public servant pursuant to an order of a court;
(3) “Escape” means unauthorized departure from custody or failure to return to custody following temporary leave for a specific purpose or limited period, but does not include a violation of conditions of probation or parole; and
(4) “Penal institution,” for the purposes of this part, includes any institution or facility used to house or detain a person:
(A) Convicted of a crime; or
(B) Adjudicated delinquent by a juvenile court; or
(C) Who is in direct or indirect custody after a lawful arrest.

TenmCode Ann. § 39-16-601 (1997).

Lankford contends that he was not in “custody,” for the purposes of the statute, because the Mason facility, which does not house Tennessee prisoners, is not an agent of the State of Tennessee, and its employees are neither law enforcement officers nor public officials.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Tennessee v. David Gilliam
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2010
Doty v. Doyle
182 F. Supp. 2d 750 (E.D. Wisconsin, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 S.W.3d 212, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-anthony-wayne-lankford-and-christopher-arthur-mckeon-tenncrimapp-2001.