Townes v. Jarvis

• Decision Date: 19 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 05-7382.,05-7382.
• Citation: 577 F.3d 543
• Parties: Carl Melvin TOWNES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Larry W. JARVIS, Warden; Gene M. Johnson, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

577 F.3d 543

Carl Melvin TOWNES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Larry W. JARVIS, Warden; Gene M. Johnson, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 05-7382.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: December 3, 2008.

Decided: August 19, 2009.

ARGUED: Justin Sanjeeve Antonipillai, Carl Ezekiel Ross, Arnold & Porter, LLP., Washington, DC, for Appellant. Richard Carson Vorhis, Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Erika K. Woods, Arnold & Porter, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Robert F. McDonnell, Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees.

Before MOTZ, GREGORY, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge MOTZ wrote the opinion, in which Judge GREGORY joined. Judge SHEDD wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge:

The Virginia Parole Board found Carl Melvin Townes ineligible for discretionary parole. After a state court denied him habeas relief, Townes filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, claiming that the parole ineligibility determination violated his due process and equal protection rights. The district court dismissed the petition. We granted a certificate of appealability on both constitutional claims. Because the state released Townes from prison during the pendency of this appeal, it initially contends that Townes's claims are now moot. Alternatively, the state asserts that the district court properly dismissed the claims. Although we do not find the claims moot, we agree with the district court that Townes has failed to state any claim upon which relief can be granted and so affirm its dismissal of the case.

I.

During a ten-day period in February 1991, Townes robbed three fast-food restaurants in different Virginia counties. For two of these crimes, the state specifically convicted Townes of using or displaying a firearm as part of the felony offenses. But for the third, Townes pled guilty to common law robbery in exchange for the government declining to prosecute the additional firearm charge with which it charged Townes. As a result of these various convictions, the state committed Townes to the custody of the Virginia Department of Corrections.

In Virginia, a prisoner generally becomes eligible for parole after serving a specified portion of his sentence. See Va. Code Ann. § 53.1-151(A) (2005). However, the state's "three-strikes" statute provides that "[a]ny person convicted of three separate felony offenses of (i) murder, (ii) rape or (iii) robbery by the presenting of firearms or other deadly weapon . . . when such offenses were not part of a common act, transaction or scheme shall not be eligible for parole." Id. § 53.1-151(B1). After the Department of Corrections makes a determination of parole ineligibility under this statute, the Virginia Parole Board ("the Board") may review that decision. Id.

The Board considered and rejected Townes's parole application, finding him ineligible for parole consideration pursuant to the three-strikes statute. Townes then filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court of Virginia, arguing that the Board violated his due process rights in its method of counting his predicate offenses and violated his equal protection rights by discriminating against him because of his race. The state court promptly dismissed his habeas petition as "frivolous." Townes v. Dir. of the Dep't of Corrs., No. 032123 (Va. Nov. 5, 2003).

Townes next filed this habeas petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006), naming as respondents Larry W. Jarvis, the warden of his prison, and Gene M. Johnson, the Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections (collectively "the Warden"). Townes again asserted that the Board's parole ineligibility determination violated his due process and equal protection rights. The district court granted the Warden's motion to dismiss. Townes timely appealed.

While this appeal was pending, Virginia released Townes from prison on mandatory parole pursuant to Va.Code Ann. § 53.1-159 (2005). In addition to the conditions imposed by his parole, Townes must also serve a period of probation administered by the state courts.

II.

Initially, the Warden contends that Townes's release from custody moots this case. "[T]he doctrine of mootness constitutes a part of the constitutional limits of federal court jurisdiction. . . . [A] case is moot when the issues presented are no longer `live' or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." United States v. Hardy, 545 F.3d 280, 283 (4th Cir.2008) (quotations and citations omitted). Particularly relevant here, "[m]ootness has been described as `the doctrine of standing set in a time frame: The requisite personal interest that must exist at the commencement of the litigation (standing) must continue throughout its existence (mootness).'" Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 68 n. 22, 117 S.Ct. 1055, 137 L.Ed.2d 170 (1997) (quoting U.S. Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 397, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980)).

Thus, for a controversy to be moot, it must lack at least one of the three required elements of Article III standing (1) injury in fact, (2) causation, or (3) redressability. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). The Warden does not suggest that Townes lacked standing when he filed this complaint, but instead contends that Townes's release from prison moots this action. For the reasons that follow, however, Townes demonstrates that the Board's parole-ineligibility finding continues to result in collateral consequences with respect to the duration of his parole and probation. Thus, we cannot find this action moot.

First, Townes still asserts an injury-in-fact. Although his release from prison has foreclosed the possibility of a shorter period of incarceration, the parole ineligibility finding still may affect the length of his parole. See Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998) (describing collateral consequences). Therefore, because Townes could receive a shorter period of parole if he receives a discretionary parole hearing, he has properly asserted an injury-in-fact. See Mujahid v. Daniels, 413 F.3d 991, 994-95 (9th Cir.2005).¹

Second, Townes continues to satisfy the causation prong of the standing requirement. Article III requires "a `causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of,' meaning that the injury is `fairly traceable' to the defendant's actions." Covenant Media of S.C., LLC v. City of N. Charleston, 493 F.3d 421, 428 (4th Cir.2007) (quoting Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130). Here, the Board's parole ineligibility finding precludes Townes from an opportunity to obtain a shortened period of parole.

Finally, Townes has alleged an injury that still satisfies the redressability prong. "[F]or an injury to meet the redressability standard, `it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.'" In re Mut. Funds Inv. Litig., 529 F.3d 207, 216-17 (4th Cir.2008) (quoting Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130). In some cases, like the one at hand, a plaintiff will seek immediate relief from a federal court as a necessary antecedent to the ultimate relief he seeks from a different entity, like an administrative agency. In these situations, to meet the redressability prong, a party must demonstrate that a favorable decision from the federal court likely would provide him immediate relief, but need not demonstrate that it likely would provide him the ultimate, discretionary relief sought from the agency. See FEC v. Akins, 524 U.S. 11, 25, 118 S.Ct. 1777, 141 L.Ed.2d 10 (1998).

In Akins, the Supreme Court specifically addressed this very issue. There the FEC contended that plaintiffs lacked standing because even if the agency "agreed with [the plaintiffs'] view of the law," it was "possible" that the FEC could "still have decided in the exercise of its discretion" not to grant them relief. Id. According to the FEC, plaintiffs had failed to show that their alleged harm was (1) fairly traceable to the FEC's decision and (2) redressable by judicial action. The Supreme Court flatly rejected this argument, explaining that it could not "know that the FEC would have exercised its . . . discretion" to deny plaintiffs relief. Id. (emphasis added). The Court further explained:

Agencies often have discretion about whether or not to take a particular action. Yet those adversely affected by a discretionary agency decision generally have standing to complain that the agency based its decision upon an improper legal ground. If a reviewing court agrees that the agency misinterpreted the law, it will set aside the agency's action . . . even though the agency . . . might later, in the exercise of its lawful discretion, reach the same result for a different reason. Thus [plaintiffs'] "injury in fact" is "fairly traceable" to the FEC's decision . . ., even though the FEC might reach the same result exercising its discretionary powers lawfully. For similar reasons, the courts in this case can "redress" [plaintiffs'] "injury in fact."

Id. (emphasis added; citations omitted). Thus, the Court in Akins held that a plaintiff could establish redressability simply by demonstrating that an agency "misinterpreted the law," even though the agency might ultimately "reach the same result." The Court recognized that, in this situation, a plaintiff can establish redressability without demonstrating that the agency would likely grant the ultimate relief sought; to require a showing of likelihood of ultimate relief in this situation would involve courts in the speculative (if not impossible) task of predicting how an agency will exercise its discretion.

Of course, Akins also indicates that if a court "know[s]" that an agency...