Alexander v. State of Md.

• Decision Date: 20 October 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-6213,82-6213
• Citation: 719 F.2d 1241
• Parties: Andrew ALEXANDER, a/k/a Walter Bruce, Appellee, v. STATE OF MARYLAND; Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, S. Bosley, Acting Commander, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1241

719 F.2d 1241

Andrew ALEXANDER, a/k/a Walter Bruce, Appellee, v. STATE OF MARYLAND; Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, S. Bosley, Acting Commander, Appellants.

No. 82-6213.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 11, 1983.

Decided Oct. 20, 1983.

Philip M. Andrews, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md. (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellants.

Deborah L. Robinson, Baltimore, Md. (Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellee.

Before RUSSELL, PHILLIPS and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges.

JAMES DICKSON PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

Claiming that in 1961 he was unconstitutionally convicted by the State of Maryland as an adult when he was a juvenile, Andrew Alexander sought by federal habeas corpus petition to defeat Maryland's effort by detainer to secure his custody from federal authorities to force completion of his state sentence under the challenged conviction. The district court granted habeas relief as prayed. Finding no error on Maryland's appeal, we affirm.

I

Alexander was convicted by bench trial in the Criminal Court of Baltimore City in 1961 of three felony counts concerning actual and attempted armed robbery. All three offenses involved the use of a handgun and Alexander had at least one partner in each escapade. Alexander was sentenced to a minimum term of twenty years' incarceration, a portion of which has not yet been served. ¹

Alexander was 17 years of age at the time of his arrest and subsequent conviction in 1961. At that time, general Maryland law ² provided that individuals under 18 years of age were considered juveniles for purposes of criminal prosecution. Juvenile defendants were remanded to the Juvenile Court for disposition of their cases. The Juvenile Court could waive jurisdiction over the juvenile and return him to the regular courts for trial as an adult. This waiver was in the absolute discretion of the Juvenile Court in 1961.

This law was not in force statewide, however. The statute specifically exempted the City of Baltimore, and the local public law of the City of Baltimore provided that only individuals under the age of 16 were subject to juvenile jurisdiction in Baltimore. These under-16 Baltimore juveniles could also be waived to the adult court in the absolute discretion of the juvenile court. Alexander, being 17 at the time of his indictment in Baltimore, was denied the opportunity to have a juvenile waiver hearing; rather, he was tried and convicted as an adult under the original jurisdiction of the regular criminal courts.

In 1971, this court held that these differing age-standards for application of juvenile jurisdiction violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Long v. Robinson, 316 F.Supp. 22 (D.Md.1970), aff'd, 436 F.2d 1116 (4th Cir.1971). One year later, in 1972, this court held in Woodall v. Pettibone, 465 F.2d 49 (4th Cir.1972), that the Long decision was to be given retroactive application and that all 16 and 17 year old persons convicted in Baltimore without the benefit of a juvenile waiver hearing were prima facie entitled to have the convictions vacated:

As to these 122 persons, we hold that they are entitled to retroactive application of the rationale of Long. In granting relief, the district court will be faced with the same procedural problem encountered in Kemplen v. Maryland, supra [428 F.2d 169 (4th Cir.1970) ]. For its guidance in further proceedings, we suggest that the application of Long to the convictions of these persons in the adult criminal courts should be treated as establishing prima facie a right to have the convictions vacated and declared null and void, provided, however, that the state should be afforded the opportunity, either in the Maryland courts or in the United States District Court, to establish nunc pro tunc that the Maryland Juvenile Court Judge would have, because of the facts and circumstances, waived jurisdiction to an adult court.

Woodall, 465 F.2d at 53.

Therefore, in 1972, Alexander could have petitioned under Long and Woodall for habeas relief from the state convictions. ³ Alexander did not avail himself of this opportunity in 1972, however, because at the time he had escaped from prison and was a fugitive. This was not an isolated episode. After being incarcerated in 1961, he had escaped in 1968 and remained at large until 1973. After being captured and convicted of that escape, Alexander escaped again in 1976 and was subsequently recaptured in the District of Columbia where he was convicted of burglary. ⁴

Alexander was then sentenced to six years in a federal penal facility for the burglary conviction. At the time he had not completed the sentences imposed by the Maryland courts, so the state in 1979 filed a detainer with the federal authorities to require that Alexander be discharged into state custody upon completion of his federal sentence. In 1980, Alexander filed this habeas corpus petition to challenge the detainer, claiming that his state convictions should be vacated under Long and Woodall.

The district court, after extended factual inquiry, granted relief to Alexander on the theory announced in Woodall. The court also held that Alexander was not barred from seeking relief under Habeas Rule 9 because, although the petition was filed almost twenty years after the state convictions, the state did not suffer any prejudice directly traceable to Alexander's delayed filing. The district court vacated the detainer filed by the state. Alexander subsequently completed his federal sentence and was conditionally released on his personal recognizance while this appeal by Maryland is pending.

II

Maryland attacks the order of the district court on two grounds: it claims that the court's finding that Alexander was entitled to habeas relief was erroneous; and it claims that the court's refusal to dismiss the petition under Habeas Rule 9(a) was an abuse of discretion. We address these claims separately.

A

Under circuit law as declared in Long and Woodall, persons convicted in state court as was Alexander have a prima facie right to have their convictions vacated and declared null and void. The state can defeat this right only by "establish[ing] nunc pro tunc that the Maryland Juvenile Court Judge would have, because of the facts and circumstances, waived jurisdiction to an adult court." Woodall, 465 F.2d at 53. The dispute here concerns the application of this standard to the unique circumstances of Alexander's case.

Woodall imposes a difficult proof burden on the state seeking to defeat a prima facie claim such as Alexander's. The burden is to prove that the Baltimore juvenile court actually would have waived jurisdiction over the petitioner had a waiver hearing been held. A habeas court, in determining nunc pro tunc what the Baltimore court would have done in 1961, engages perforce in a highly speculative historical inquiry. Our standard in reviewing the district court's decision on this wholly dispositive factual issue is the normal one: we must not reject its factual finding unless it is clearly erroneous. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

Maryland has made a valiant attempt to meet its burden. The state presented evidence of Alexander's impoverished and unhappy home life, of his lack of education and somewhat low intelligence, and of his involvement with the juvenile authorities prior to his armed robbery arrests. Alexander had been adjudged a delinquent in 1957 for being a chronic truant; he was adjudged to be a delinquent again in 1958 for participating in the malicious destruction of some car windows. After serving 30 days at a juvenile reformatory, Alexander was placed on probation, from which he was released in 1959 after receiving one reprimand for a minor violation of the probation terms.

As further evidence that a waiver would have occurred, Maryland points to the nature of the crimes involved. All three robberies involved the use of a handgun in robbing commercial retail establishments, and Alexander admitted to being the gunman in one of the robberies. The state also stresses that one of Alexander's co-defendants who was under 16 received a waiver hearing and juvenile jurisdiction was waived in that case.

Finally, Maryland submitted a letter from a judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore who had been apprised of the facts of this case and asked to submit an opinion on the waiver issue. This judge analyzed the case under the current waiver statute, Cts. and Jud.Proc. Sec. 3-817(d), which prescribes a five-factor inquiry, ⁵ and opined that he would waive jurisdiction over this case under present standards.

In opposition, Alexander presented the statistical records of the Baltimore juvenile court for the year 1961: during that year, only 33 cases out of a total 3,632--less than one percent--were waived by the juvenile court. These statistics were not categorized by the type of crimes involved, so it is impossible to determine what percentage of armed robbery cases were waived. Alexander also submitted a letter from a judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore. This judge concluded that, on the facts of this case, he would not have waived jurisdiction over Alexander in 1961. ⁶

The district judge was confronted with contradictory evidence that essentially placed the narrow, dispositive factual issue in equipoise. He was aware of Alexander's personal situation and prior involvement with the juvenile authorities; he had the considered opposing opinions of two expert witnesses, one applying the current waiver standard and one applying the 1961 standard; he knew that less than one percent of all cases were waived by the juvenile court in 1961. Faced with this evidence, the court determined that the state had not shown that a waiver would have occurred in this case. The record demonstrates that this finding is not clearly erroneous.

Aside from the actual decision on the merits,...