Pine v. Clark

• Citation: 636 A.2d 1319
• Decision Date: 01 February 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-514-M,93-514-M
• Parties: Jeffrey B. PINE, in his capacity as Attorney General v. Sidney CLARK. P.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Page 1319

636 A.2d 1319

Jeffrey B. PINE, in his capacity as Attorney General v. Sidney CLARK.

No. 93-514-M.P.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 1, 1994.

Jeffrey Pine, Atty. Gen., Thomas Dickinson, Deputy Atty. Gen., Aaron Weisman, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.

Richard Casparian, Public Defender, Barbara Hurst, Asst. Public Defender, Edward L. Gerstein, Little Compton, for defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This matter came before this court on the petition of the defendant, Sidney Clark (Clark), for certiorari. The defendant seeks review of a Superior Court order that reversed the decision of the Parole Board (board) that he be released on parole. The plaintiff, Jeffrey B. Pine, the State's Attorney General (Attorney General), had appealed the board's decision, purportedly under the authority of a section of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), G.L.1956 (1993 Reenactment) § 42-35-15. We now reverse the judgment of the Superior Court.

The parties did not order transcripts of the Superior Court hearing in this matter. Therefore, we have gleaned the following summary of the facts from the judgment of the Superior Court, other portions of the record, and other cases in which defendant was involved.

Clark has a long and tortuous history in the criminal-justice system, which includes the following events. He was convicted of raping a female college student in 1969. See State v. Clark, 112 R.I. 270, 271, 308 A.2d 792, 793 (1973) (Clark I ). This court affirmed his conviction in 1973. See id. at 275, 308 A.2d at 795. While serving his fifteen-year sentence on that charge in the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), Clark was found guilty in 1975 of second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of a fellow inmate. See State v. Clark, 423 A.2d 1151, 1153 (R.I.1980) (Clark II), habeas corpus denied sub nom. Clark v. Moran, 749 F.Supp. 1186 (D.R.I.1990), aff'd, 942 F.2d 24 (1st Cir.1991). In 1976, the trial justice sentenced Clark to death pursuant to the provisions of G.L.1956 (1969 Reenactment) § 11-23-2, as amended by P.L.1973, ch. 280, § 1. Clark II, 423 A.2d at 1153.

Also in 1976, Clark attempted to escape from the ACI and ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to escape and attempted escape; he was sentenced to "one year consecutive." On February 19, 1979, this court held the death-penalty provision of § 11-23-2 violative of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. See State v. Cline, 121 R.I. 299, 303-04, 397 A.2d 1309, 1311 (1979); U.S. Const. Amend. VIII. Subsequently, this court granted Clark's motion to remand his case to the Superior Court for resentencing, see State v. Clark, 401 A.2d 1305 (R.I.1979) (mem.), and in October 1979 he received a life sentence. See Clark II, 423 A.2d at 1153.

In August 1985 the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (DOC) decided that Clark was eligible for parole on the murder conviction. He appeared before the board semiannually, and in November 1988, the board granted him parole as of January 1992, contingent on excellent institutional behavior. Clark was released on parole from the work- release unit, but in December 1992 a detention warrant was issued and Clark was recommitted to the ACI in January 1993, apparently for failure of a drug-screening test.

In March 1993 the board voted to rescind the detention warrant and rerelease Clark on parole in June 1993 to the home-confinement program, to be closely supervised. In response to a request by the Attorney General, the board held a hearing on Clark's eligibility and decided to review his status in June because of an allegation that he had committed a disciplinary infraction. The board considered the objections that the Attorney General submitted regarding Clark's upcoming release and also heard arguments from Clark's attorneys. The following entry regarding Clark appears in an addendum to the minutes of the board meeting of May 27, 1993:

"After careful review of the arguments and legal memoranda, the Board voted unanimously to deny the Attorney General's objection.

"The Board carefully reviewed questions the Attorney General raised regarding parole procedures and the Board believes these issues should be addressed in the appropriate form. [sic ]

"The Board is also aware of an alleged institutional infraction by Mr. Clark and this will be addressed by the Board prior to his release."

The Attorney General filed his complaint, styled an administrative appeal, in the Superior Court on June 16, 1993, seeking reversal of the board's decision and an order denying Clark parole, among other things. The board reviewed Clark's status after finding that he was not guilty in the disciplinary proceeding and on June 17, 1993, decided to rerelease him to home confinement.

The Attorney General filed a motion to stay Clark's release on parole pending the outcome of the appeal. After hearing arguments, the motion justice denied the stay on July 19, 1993. The same justice heard arguments on the merits of the appeal on September 22, 1993 and, a week later, filed his decision reversing the board. The hearing justice found that the board's decision to release Clark violated G.L.1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 13-8-13, which delineates parole eligibility for life prisoners and prisoners with long sentences. See § 13-8-13. He ordered that Clark be apprehended and confined to the ACI "until such time as he qualifies for release after serving his full sentence, or until such time as he is eligible to be considered for parole, only after he has served not less than twenty-five years [of] imprisonment."

In Clark's petition to this court, he raises numerous substantive and procedural arguments in support of his position that the Superior Court judgment should be reversed, including the following assertions. He argues that § 13-8-13 does not apply to him because he was not sentenced to life imprisonment on the date of his conviction for attempted escape. He further contends that even if it did apply, the retroactive application of the statute to invalidate a parole classification that was made eight years before would violate his due-process rights. He also claims that the Superior Court lacked jurisdiction over this case for several reasons: (1) no administrative appeal lies under § 42-35-15 to review the board's decision in an individual case, (2) the complaint was not filed within thirty days of any decision of the board addressing Clark's eligibility for parole, and (3) the complaint failed to join indispensable parties. Finally, he asserts two equitable arguments: (1) that the Attorney General waived any legal challenge to Clark's parole eligibility by failing to challenge parole until Clark's second release on parole was imminent and (2) that the Attorney General is barred by laches.

A challenge to subject-matter jurisdiction questions the very power of the court to hear the case. It is an axiomatic rule of civil procedure that such a claim may not be waived by any party and may be raised at any time in the proceedings. See La Petite Auberge, Inc. v. Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, 419 A.2d 274, 280 (R.I.1980); Super.R.Civ.P. 12(b) & (h). Therefore, because Clark has challenged the subject-matter jurisdiction, that is, the power of the Superior Court to hear the Attorney General's appeal from the board, we address this threshold inquiry first.

The most significant challenge that Clark levels against the Superior Court's exercise of jurisdiction is that § 42-35-15 did not empower the Superior Court to entertain the Attorney General's purported administrative appeal from the board's decision. Section 42-35-15(a) provides as follows:

"Any person who has exhausted all administrative remedies available to him [or her] within the agency, and who is aggrieved by a final order in a contested case is entitled to judicial review under this chapter. This section does not limit utilization of or the scope of judicial review available under other means of review, redress, relief, or trial de novo provided by law. Any preliminary, procedural, or intermediate agency act or ruling is immediately reviewable in any case in which review of the final agency order would not provide an adequate remedy." (Emphasis added.)

This section is part of the APA, §§ 42-35-1 to 42-35-18. The APA defines a "contested case" as "a proceeding, including but not restricted to ratemaking, price fixing, and licensing, in which the legal rights, duties, or privileges of a specific party are required by law to be determined by an agency after an opportunity for hearing[.]" See § 42-35-1(c). "Agency" includes all authorities and every state board, commission, department, or officer "authorized by law to make rules or to determine contested cases," except the Legislature or the courts. Section 42-35-1(a).

The final section of the APA specifically excludes certain entities from either some or all of its provisions. See § 42-35-18. Section 42-35-18(c)(3) exempts chapter 8 of title 13, the chapter governing parole, from the application of §§ 42-35-9 to 42-35-13 of the APA. Specifically, § 42-35-9 prescribes procedures required with regard to notice, a hearing, and records in contested cases; §§ 42-35-10 to 42-35-13 address other matters pertinent to contested cases, including the applicability of the rules of evidence, the examination of evidence by the agency, the requirement that final orders adverse to parties be in writing or stated in the record, and the proscription of most ex parte communications by members or employees of an agency assigned to render an order or make findings of fact and conclusions of law in a contested case. The board is not explicitly exempted from § 42-35-15, which authorizes judicial review in contested cases. See § 42-35-18(c)(3).

The hearing justice concluded that the Superior Court had jurisdiction to review board decisions under § 42-35-15. He reasoned that the board is an agency authorized by law...