Hartfield v. Quarterman

• Decision Date: 25 February 2009
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. H-07-3676.
• Citation: 603 F.Supp.2d 943
• Parties: Jerry HARTFIELD, Petitioner, v. Nathaniel QUARTERMAN, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

603 F.Supp.2d 943

Jerry HARTFIELD, Petitioner, v. Nathaniel QUARTERMAN, Respondent.

Civil Action No. H-07-3676.

United States District Court, S.D. Texas.

February 25, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Brent Evan Newton, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Houston, TX, for Petitioner.

Joseph P. Corcoran, Postconviction Litigation Div. Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Austin, TX, for Respondent.

Order of Adoption

LYNN N. HUGHES, District Judge.

On January 29, 2009, Magistrate Judge Stephen Wm. Smith issued a Memorandum and Recommendation (23) to which both parties have filed objections (27, 31). After considering the record and the law, the court adopts the Memorandum and Recommendation as its Memorandum and Order.

MEMORANDUM AND RECOMMENDATION

STEPHEN WM. SMITH, United States Magistrate Judge.

In 1980, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed petitioner Jerry Hartfield's capital murder conviction and remanded his case for a new trial. See Hartfield v. State, 645 S.W.2d 436, 441 (Tex.Crim.App.1980). No new trial was ever conducted, yet Hartfield has remained in state confinement for nearly three decades, serving what the State contends is a commuted life sentence. His habeas petition, asserting speedy trial and due process violations, is now before the court on respondent Nathaniel Quarterman's for summary judgment, which urges dismissal based on the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act's (AEDPA's) one-year statute of limitations. (Dkt. 15).

The court recommends that the State's motion be denied. Hartfield's petition is a pre conviction habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and therefore not governed by AEDPA or its time limits. In light of the jurisdiction/venue requirements for § 2241 petitions, his case should be transferred to the Eastern District of Texas, where Hartfield is now in custody.

Background

In 1977, a Texas state jury convicted petitioner Jerry Hartfield of the capital murder of Eunice Lowe. After a brief punishment phase, the jury assessed Hartfield's punishment at death and the trial court sentenced him accordingly.

Hartfield appealed his conviction to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On September 17, 1980, that court unanimously reversed Hartfield's conviction due to Witherspoon error. See Hartfield, 645 S.W.2d at 441. Witherspoon error, named for the Supreme Court's decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968), occurs when a potential juror in a capital case is struck for cause because of generalized reservations about the death penalty, even though the potential juror remains open to the possibility of voting for death in the defendant's particular case. See Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 43-45, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980) (extending Witherspoon's holding to the punishment phase of a capital case). Because Witherspoon error affects only the sentence of death and not the determination of guilt, reversal due to Witherspoon error requires only a new punishment phase. See Witherspoon, 391 U.S. at 522 n. 21, 88 S.Ct. 1770; Adams, 448 U.S. at 51, 100 S.Ct. 2521. But under Texas law at the time, the Court of Criminal Appeals was bound to reverse Hartfield's conviction and remand the case for an entire new trial. See Hartfield, 645 S.W.2d at 441 (citing Evans v. State, 614 S.W.2d 414 (Tex.Crim.App.1980)); see also Ocker v. State, 477 S.W.2d 288, 291 (Tex. Crim.App.1972) (noting that courts could not remand for a new assessment of punishment in cases "where the original punishment was set by the jury").

Thereafter, the State moved for leave to file a motion for rehearing.¹ It argued that the court should reform Hartfield's sentence to life imprisonment rather than remand for a new trial or, alternatively, give the State a reasonable period of time to seek a commutation of Hartfield's sentence from the governor. The court granted leave on November 26, 1980.²

Twenty-six months later, on January 26, 1983, the court denied rehearing in a written opinion. See Hartfield, 645 S.W.2d at 441-42. Given Texas law and the court's prior holdings, the court "reluctantly" denied the State's request to reform Hartfield's sentence to life in prison. Id. at 442. As for the State's request for more time to seek a commutation, the court quoted Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Rule 310 to the effect that its decision would not become final for fifteen days and declared that period a reasonable time for the State to seek commutation from the governor. The court also suggested that the State could seek a stay of the mandate for up to sixty days if it needed more time, citing Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Rule 311.

The State then moved for leave to file a second motion for rehearing.³ On March 4, 1983, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied that motion and issued its mandate to the trial court in the following words:

[I]t is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the Court that the judgment be reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion of this Court and that this decision be certified below for observance.⁴

The court's mandate was never recalled, its decision never overturned, the conviction never reinstated; yet Hartfield never received the "entirely new trial" ordered by the court. Hartfield, 645 S.W.2d at 442.

Instead, on March 15, 1983—eleven days after the court's mandate issued—Governor Mark White issued a proclamation, at the State's request, purporting to commute Hartfield's death sentence to life imprisonment.⁵ Hartfield has remained in state custody ever since and is currently being held at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Michael Unit in Anderson County, within the Eastern District of Texas.

In 2007, the Court of Criminal Appeals summarily rejected, in rapid succession, Hartfield's first application for a writ of habeas corpus, his application for leave to file a mandamus petition, and his second application for a writ of habeas corpus.⁶

Hartfield filed this federal habeas application, pro se, on October 22, 2007. The court subsequently appointed the Federal Public Defender's Office to represent him. (Dkt. 17.) On October 16, 2008, the court directed the parties to submit supplemental briefs on the question of whether Hartfield is in custody "pursuant to the judgment of a State court" as that phrase is used in 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Both sides having submitted their briefs, the court now addresses that critical issue.

Analysis

By its own terms, AEDPA's one-year statute of limitations applies only to a particular subset of habeas petitions—those filed on behalf of persons "in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court." See 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(d)(1), 2254(a) (2006). In order to invoke the limitations defense then, the State must satisfy this threshold condition.

If Hartfield is in custody pursuant to the judgment of a state court, then AEDPA's statute of limitations prevents the court from granting his habeas petition absent equitable tolling. See 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). Moreover, even if equitable tolling allows the court to hear the petition, it would have to apply AEDPA's stringent standards of review. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).

By contrast, if Hartfield is not in custody pursuant to the judgment of a state court, then AEDPA does not apply and his habeas petition should be construed as one made under the traditional habeas statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2241.⁷ Unlike habeas petitions governed by AEDPA, habeas petitions under § 2241 have no statute of limitations and are reviewed de novo by federal courts. See Day v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 198, 202 n. 1, 126 S.Ct. 1675, 164 L.Ed.2d 376 (2006) ("Until AEPA took effect in 1996, no statute of limitations applied to habeas petitions."); 2 RANDY HERTZ & JAMES S. LIEBMAN, FEDERAL HABEAS CORPUS PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 32.1, 1564 (5th ed. 2005) ("Until Congress' enactment of [AEDPA], it was blackletter law that federal habeas corpus courts were required to resolve all of the petitioner's legal claims de novo in the strictest sense of that term.").

This threshold determination of whether Hartfield's petition is one under § 2254 or § 2241 also has jurisdiction and venue consequences. Unlike § 2254 postconviction habeas petitions, which can be filed either in the federal district where the petitioner was convicted and sentenced or the federal district where the petitioner is in custody, § 2241 preconviction habeas petitions can be filed only in the federal district where the petitioner is in custody. Compare Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, 442-43, 124 S.Ct. 2711, 159 L.Ed.2d 513 (2004) (§ 2241 petitions) with Wadsworth v. Johnson, 235 F.3d 959, 961 (5th Cir.2000) (§ 2254 petitions). Thus, if Hartfield's petition is governed by § 2241, the proper forum would be the Eastern District of Texas, where he is now being held, rather than the Southern District of Texas, where he was convicted and sentenced.⁸

1. Is Hartfield in Custody Pursuant to the Judgment of a State Court?

Hartfield's position is as straightforward and subtle as a freight train: (1) the Court of Criminal Appeals's mandate, which reversed and remanded his case for a new trial, nullified the trial court's judgment and returned the case to its pretrial status and (2) he has not been convicted or sentenced by any state court in the meantime. These propositions are incontrovertible as a matter of fact and law. See Ex parte Nickerson, 893 S.W.2d 546, 548 (Tex.Crim. App.1995) (holding that "no conviction remains when the judgment has been reversed and remanded for a new trial" and that "the sentence is no longer in effect . . . because it no longer exists."); see also Tex.R.App. P. 21.9 ("Granting a new trial restores the case to its position before the former trial"). Therefore, Hartfield concludes that his lengthy detention is not "pursuant to the judgment of a State court" within the meaning of AEDPA.

The State attempts to derail this conclusion by pointing to...