ALABAMA v. BOZEMAN

• Decision Date: 11 June 2001
• Citation: 533 U.S. 146
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

OCTOBER TERM, 2000

Syllabus

ALABAMA v. BOZEMAN

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA No. 00-492. Argued April 17, 200l-Decided June 11,2001

The Interstate Agreement on Detainers (Agreement) creates uniform procedures for lodging and executing a detainer, i. e., a legal order that requires a State to hold a currently imprisoned individual when he has finished serving his sentence so that he may be tried by a different State for a different crime. As relevant here, the Agreement provides that a State that obtains a prisoner for purposes of trial must try him within 120 days of his arrival, Art. IV(c), and if it returns him to his "original place of imprisonment" prior to that trial, charges "shall" be dismissed with prejudice, Art. IV(e). While respondent Bozeman was serving a federal prison sentence in Florida, the Covington County, Alabama, district attorney sought temporary custody of Bozeman to arraign him on firearms charges and to appoint counsel. When taken to Covington County, Bozeman spent the night in the county jail, appeared in local court the next morning, obtained local counsel, and was returned to federal prison that evening. About one month later, he was brought back to the county for trial. Bozeman's counsel moved to dismiss the state charges on the ground that, because Bozeman had been "returned to the original place of imprisonment" (namely, the federal prison) "prior to" "trial" on state charges being "had," in violation of Article IV(e), the local court had to dismiss the charges with prejudice in light of Art. IV(e)'s command as to remedy. Bozeman was convicted, and an appeals court affirmed. The State Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Agreement's literal language controlled and required dismissal of the state charges.

Held: The literal language of Article IV(e) bars any further criminal proceedings when a defendant is returned to the original place of imprisonment before trial. Pp. 152-157.

(a) Alabama claims that Article IV(e)'s basic purpose is to prevent shuttling that would interrupt a prisoner's rehabilitation and that, since the one-day interruption here did not interrupt rehabilitation significantly, any violation is "technical," "harmless," or "de minimis." However, the Agreement's language militates against an implicit exception, for it is absolute, as the word "shall" is ordinarily the language of command. Anderson v. Yungkau, 329 U. S. 482, 485. Moreover, the Agreement makes no distinction among different kinds of arrivals, e. g., exempting those that are followed by return within a short, speci-

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tied time period, or those that are simply for arraignment purposes. Pp. 152-154.

(b) Even assuming that the Agreement exempts violations that, viewed in terms of its purposes, are de minimis, the violation here could not qualify as trivial, because the "no return" provision's purpose cannot be a simple, direct effort to prevent the interruption of rehabilitation. Article IV(e)'s requirement that the prisoner remain in the county jail means that he will typically spend 120 days away from the sending State's rehabilitation programs, whereas returning him prior to trialin violation of IV(e)-would permit him to participate in the sending State's program for some of those days. To call such a violation "technical," because it means fewer days spent away from the sending State, is to call virtually every conceivable antishuttling violation "technical." The Agreement may seek to remove rehabilitation obstructions in a different way: Requiring the receiving State to pay for the prisoner's incarceration during the pretrial period (pursuant to Article V) may give the State an incentive to shorten that period and dispose of detainers expeditiously. Alternatively, the Agreement's drafters may have sought to minimize the number of shuttles in the belief that the "shuttling" itself adds to the uncertainties obstructing rehabilitation programs, see Art. I. Regardless of the anti shuttling remedy's original purpose, given the Agreement's absolute language, it is enough to explain why Alabama's view is not plausible and to point to other purposes more easily squared with Article IV(e)'s text and operation. Pp. 154-156.

(c) Alabama's additional claim that return to the sending State after a brief journey to the receiving State for pretrial purposes is helpful, not harmful, to the prisoner is a policy argument more appropriately addressed to legislatures. And the federal statutory provision to which the Solicitor General points governs only when the United States is a receiving State, which does not help Alabama's cause. Although this Court rejects Alabama's interpretation of the Agreement, a receiving State is not barred from returning a prisoner when it would be mutually advantageous and the prisoner accordingly waives his Article IV(e) rights. pp. 156-157.

781 So. 2d 165, affirmed.

BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, Parts I, II -A, and II-C of which were unanimous, and Part II-B of which was joined by REHNQUIST, C. J., and STEVENS, O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and GINSBURG, JJ.

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Sandra Jean Stewart, Assistant Attorney General of Alabama, argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs was Bill Pryor, Attorney General.

Jeffrey A. Lamken argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Acting Solicitor General Underwood, Acting Assistant Attorney General Keeney, and Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben.

Mark John Christensen, by appointment of the Court, 531 U. S. 1141, argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent. *

JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court.t Forty-eight States, the Federal Government, and the District of Columbia (all of which, for simplicity, we shall call "States") have entered into the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (Agreement), 18 U. S. C. App. § 2, p. 692, an interstate compact. The Agreement creates uniform procedures for lodging and executing a detainer, i. e., a legal order that requires a State in which an individual is currently imprisoned to hold that individual when he has finished serving his sentence so that he may be tried by a different State for a different crime.

The Agreement provides for expeditious delivery of the prisoner to the receiving State for trial prior to the termination of his sentence in the sending State. And it seeks to minimize the consequent interruption of the prisoner's ongoing prison term. In particular, Article IV(c) specifies that the receiving State shall begin the prisoner's "trial ... within one hundred and twenty days of the arrival of the prisoner in the receiving State." At the same time, Article IV(e) prohibits return of the individual to the sending State before that trial is complete. It says:

*Mary E. Hunley and Alexander Taylor filed a brief for the National Association of Extradition Officials as amicus curiae urging reversal. tJUSTICE SCALIA and JUSTICE THOMAS join all but Part II-B of this opinion.

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"If trial is not had on any indictment, information, or complaint contemplated hereby prior to the prisoner's being returned to the original place of imprisonment pursuant to article V(e) hereof, such indictment, information, or complaint shall not be of any further force or effect, and the court shall enter an order dismissing the same with prejudice." (Emphasis added.)

The case before us requires us to interpret the Article IV language that we have just quoted. See New York v. Hill, 528 U. S. 110, 111 (2000) ("As 'a congressionally sanctioned interstate compact' within the Compact Clause of the United States Constitution, Art. I, § 10, cl. 3, the [Interstate Agreement on Detainers] is a federal law subject to federal construction") (quoting Carchman v. Nash, 473 U. S. 716, 719 (1985); Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U. S. 433, 442 (1981)). The case concerns a defendant whose initial imprisonment was interrupted briefly-for a single day-during which time he was brought to the receiving State for purposes of arraignment and then returned immediately to his original place of imprisonment. The question is whether, in such circumstances, the literal language of Article IV(e) bars any further criminal proceedings-because the defendant was "returned to the original place of imprisonment" before "trial" was "had." We conclude that Article IV(e) does bar further proceedings, despite the fact that the interruption of the initial imprisonment lasted for only one day.

I A

The Council of State Governments drafted the language of the Agreement in 1956. See United States v. Mauro, 436 U. S. 340, 349-350 (1978). The United States joined in 1970. Id., at 343. And Alabama is one of the 49 other current members. Hill, supra, at 111; Ala. Code § 15-9-81 (1995). The Agreement contains nine articles. Article I sets forth

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the problems that led to the Agreement's creation, namely, that

"charges outstanding against a prisoner, detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints and difficulties in securing speedy trial of persons already incarcerated in other jurisdictions, produce uncertainties which obstruct programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation."

Article I then adds that "it is the ... purpose of this agreement to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of such charges and determination of the proper status of ... detainers .... "

Article II sets forth definitions. Article III gives a prisoner against whom a detainer has been lodged the right to "request" a "final disposition" of the relevant charges, in which case "he shall be brought to trial within one hundred and eighty days" (unless extended by the trial court for "good cause"); otherwise, the relevant "indictment, information, or complaint shall not be of any further force or effect, and the court shall enter an order dismissing the same with prejudice." Art. III(a), (d).

Article IV gives "the jurisdiction in which an untried indictment, information, or complaint is pending," i. e.,...