Wells v. Tennessee Board of Paroles

909 S.W.2d 826, 1995 Tenn. App. LEXIS 487
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 21, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 909 S.W.2d 826 (Wells v. Tennessee Board of Paroles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wells v. Tennessee Board of Paroles, 909 S.W.2d 826, 1995 Tenn. App. LEXIS 487 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

CANTRELL, Judge.

Gary Edward Wells, an inmate in the Tennessee correctional system, appeals an order of the Circuit Court of Davidson County. The Tennessee Board of Paroles had denied parole to Mr. Wells, and he petitioned the Court for a common law Writ of Certiorari to compel the Board to grant him another hearing. The Circuit Court dismissed his petition. We affirm.

I.

Under the Common Law Writ of Cer-tiorari, the actions of an inferior tribunal are examined to determine whether that body has exceeded its jurisdiction, or acted illegally, fraudulently or arbitrarily. See Powell v. Parole Eligibility Review Board, 879 S.W.2d 871 (Tenn.App.1994). Yokley v. State, 632 S.W.2d 123 (Tenn.App.1981). Mr. Wells’ petition alleged that the conduct of the Board of Paroles, and of the hearing officer before whom he appeared, departed so far from the proper performance of their duties that it merited a finding that he was entitled to another hearing.

The trial court dismissed the appellant’s petition upon a motion by the Department of Paroles under Rule 12.02(6), Tenn. R.Civ.P.: dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. For the purposes of a Rule 12.02(6) motion, a movant admits the truth of all relevant and material averments contained in the petition or complaint, but asserts that such facts do not constitute a cause of action. Cornpropst v. Sloan, 528 S.W.2d 188 (Tenn.1975).

Our review of the trial court’s decision must necessarily take the factual allegations contained in the plaintiff’s petition as true, but we are not required to consider as true the factual inferences the plaintiff draws from those allegations, or to consider as accurate his legal conclusions. See Dobbs v. Guenther, 846 S.W.2d 270 (Tenn.App.1992). Elliott v. Dollar General Corp., 225 Tenn. 658, 664, 475 S.W.2d 651, 653 (1971).

II.

Mr. Wells asserts that he became eligible for parole in November of 1993, but that he was not granted a hearing until April 26, 1994. He claims that he was the last inmate to be interviewed on that day, and that as a result the hearing officer was distracted and rushed, and only gave him eight minutes in which to convince her that he was a suitable candidate for parole. Mr. Wells contends that eight minutes is not enough time for a [828]*828fair or meaningful decision to be made on an issue of such importance as his freedom.

After this very brief hearing, the interviewing officer told Mr. Wells that he would be denied parole for at least a year. A printed form bearing the title NOTICE OF BOARD ACTION PAROLE RELEASE HEARING was subsequently sent to him. The form contained hand-written entries in designated spaces to indicate the Board’s decision. Mr. Wells was able to decipher the entry at the bottom of the form as indicating that he would not be considered for parole for at least two years because of his “# of cases.” In his brief, Mr. Wells states that he was convicted on guilty pleas on ten counts in a single case, and received a single sentence.

A copy of the notice is included in the record. It states that the hearing time was 30 minutes. Of the two spaces on the form for the Board to indicate its “Reasons for Decline” one has the initials “HR” for High Risk, the other appears to have the initials “OY” which do not correspond to any of the reasons for decline listed on the form.

We note that we are not the only ones who seem to have difficulty interpreting the entries on the form. The Attorney General’s brief states that one reason the Board declined parole for Mr. Wells was because he needs to participate in a drug program, and he refers to the notice as the source of that information. However we see nothing in our copy of the form to support such a statement.

The appellant claims that he could not be considered a High Risk candidate for parole in light of the fact that the State of Florida, has placed a felony detainer on him, and that because of that detainer he did not pose any risk at all to the citizens of Tennessee.

Mr. Wells argues in his brief that the above irregularities indicate that he was deprived of his rights to due process. The response of the Board of Paroles is that release on parole is a privilege and not a right; that under Tennessee law, an inmate does not have a protected liberty interest in a particular parole date; and that as a result, there is also no right to due process in a parole hearing.

III.

The United States Supreme Court has held that when a state establishes a system of parole, it does not thereby create for its prisoners a constitutionally protected liberty interest in being released prior to the expiration of a legally imposed sentence. Greenholtz v. Inmates of Nebraska Penal & Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979). However, a state may enact statutes and rules for the administration of its prisons that create liberty interests entitled to constitutional due process protections. Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983).

In the case of Mayes v. Trammell, 751 F.2d 175 (6th Cir.1984), the federal appeals court held that the Tennessee parole scheme, and particularly Rule 1100-1-1-.06 of the Rules of the Tennessee Board of Parole, had created just such a liberty entitlement. At the time, the relevant portion of that rule read:

The Board operates under the presumption that each resident who is eligible for parole is a worthy candidate and thus the Board presumes that he will be released on parole when he is first eligible....

Apparently it was not the intention of the Board of Paroles to create such a constitutionally protected interest, for in the year following the decision in Mayes v. Trammell, the Board amended Rule 1100-1-1-.06, omitting all mention of presumptions of worthiness or of release. In the subsequent case of Wright v. Trammell, 810 F.2d 589 (6th Cir.1987) the same court held that the change in the rules had eliminated the liberty interest recognized in Mayes v. Trammell.

The appellant argues in general terms that changes in the parole statutes enacted as part of the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989 resurrected the liberty interest that had been eliminated in 1985. However, after examining the version of the parole statutes found in the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989, side-by-side with the previous law, the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1982, we do not find any support for the appellant’s position.

[829]

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Bluebook (online)
909 S.W.2d 826, 1995 Tenn. App. LEXIS 487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-v-tennessee-board-of-paroles-tennctapp-1995.