Boyd v. Lantz
| Citation | 487 F.Supp.2d 3 |
| Decision Date | 07 May 2007 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3:05 CV 1535(CFD). |
| Parties | Terrence BOYD, Plaintiff, v. Theresa C. LANTZ, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
Craig Yankwitt, Jonathan M. Levine, Silver, Golub & Teitell, Stamford, CT, for Plaintiff.
Richard T. Biggar, Attorney General's Office, Hartford, CT, for Respondent.
RULING ON PETITION FOR HABEAS CORPUS
Terrence Boyd, the petitioner, is serving a twenty-five year sentence of incarceration at the State of Connecticut's Osborn Correctional Institution after pleading guilty to felony murder, in violation of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 53a-54c. He now seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 22541 on the ground that the respondent, Theresa Lantz, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction ("DOC"), wrongly denied him credit toward that sentence, in violation of his federal due process rights.2 For the reasons that follow, Boyd's petition is granted.
Boyd alleges that DOC violated his due process rights by applying Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d to deny him over six years of credit toward his felony murder sentence. The time line of this case is as follows: Boyd was first arrested and placed in custody on December 15, 1986. Following a jury trial in the Connecticut Superior Court, he was convicted of burglary, larceny, and felony murder. On January 21, 1988, he was sentenced to forty-five years of incarceration for felony murder, fifteen years for burglary, and five years for larceny, with the sentences to run concurrently. On March 6, 1990, the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Boyd's felony murder conviction.4 He remained incarcerated on the burglary and larceny convictions. The state brought a new felony murder charge against Boyd, which he challenged pre-trial on double jeopardy grounds in state court. After losing his final appeal in state court,5 he filed a federal habeas petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut that reiterated his double jeopardy claim. The district court denied Boyd's petition and the Second Circuit affirmed that decision. Boyd v. Meachum, 77 F.3d 60 (2d Cir. 1996). On October 7, 1996, the U.S. Supreme. Court denied certiorari to his habeas petition. Boyd v. Armstrong, 519 U.S. 838, 117 S.Ct. 114, 136 L.Ed.2d 66 (1996). On January 3, 1997, Boyd completed his state burglary sentence, but remained incarcerated because of his re-prosecution for felony murder. On September 15, 1998 he pled guilty to felony murder, and he was sentenced that day to twenty-five years' incarceration, the sentence provided for in his plea agreement. Boyd has been incarcerated continuously through the present date since his initial arrest and detention on December 15, 1986.
In calculating the pre-sentence credits Boyd was to receive for time served to reduce his second felony murder sentence, DOC (1) awarded Boyd credit from December 15, 1986, the date of his initial arrest, to March 6, 1990, the date his first felony murder conviction was vacated by the Connecticut Supreme Court; (2) awarded Boyd credit from January 3, 1997, the date he finished serving his burglary sentence, through September 15, 1998, the date he pled guilty and was sentenced for his second felony murder conviction; and (3) denied Boyd credit from March 7, 1990, the day after his first felony murder conviction was vacated, to January 3, 1997, the date Boyd finished serving his sentence for burglary. DOC excluded the period between March 7, 1990 and January 3, 1997 because of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d(a)(1). That statute provides:
Any person who is confined to a ... correctional institution ... because such person is unable to obtain bail or is denied bail ... shall, if subsequently imprisoned, earn a reduction of such person's sentence equal to the number of days which such person spent in such facility from the time such person was placed in presentence confinement to the time such person began serving the term of imprisonment imposed; provided (A) each day of presentence confinement shall be counted only once for the purpose of reducing all sentences imposed after such presentence confinement; and (B) ... this section shall only apply to a person for whom the existence of a mittimus, an inability to obtain bail or the denial of bail is the sole reason for such person's presentence confinement .
Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d(a)(1).
In Steve v. Commissioner of Correction, the Connecticut Appellate Court held that Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d prohibits a prisoner who is incarcerated on a separate conviction and awaiting re-prosecution on a previously vacated conviction from receiving credit toward any future sentence arising out of the re-prosecution.6 39 Conn.App. 455, 469, 665 A.2d 168 (1995). In calculating Boyd's sentence for his second felony murder conviction, DOC viewed the period after the Supreme Court of Connecticut vacated his first felony murder conviction but before he finished his burglary sentence as falling directly under Steve, and hence refused to credit Boyd for this time.
Boyd challenged DOC's denial of this credit through a state habeas petition. The Superior Court denied the petition and the Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed the denial; the Supreme Court of Connecticut then denied certiorari. Boyd v. Comm'r of Corr., 84 Conn.App. 22, 851 A.2d 1209 (2004); cert. denied, 271 Conn. 929, 859 A.2d 583 (2004); Boyd v. Warden, No. CV000003130, 2002 WL 31758386, 2002 Conn.Super. LEXIS 3676 (Conn.Super.Ct. Nov.15, 2002). In its decision, the Appellate Court held that while Steve (applying North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969)) requires DOC to credit a prisoner for time served while the prisoner challenges the underlying conviction up to the time of the reversal of the conviction, Boyd's double jeopardy challenge was a "collateral ... attack after the underlying conviction was clearly vacated and [Boyd] was no longer incarcerated on that conviction." Boyd, 84 Conn.App. at 30, 851 A.2d 1209. Since Boyd was challenging his re-prosecution, not his former conviction, Steve and Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d prohibited him from receiving "double credit" counted against both his burglary sentence and his future felony murder sentence. Id. The Appellate Court found no distinction between Boyd's case and the facts of Steve, where the petitioner sought credit for time spent incarcerated for assault while awaiting re-prosecution for robbery and a separate assault charge.7 See id.
In the instant case, Boyd does not disagree that the plain language of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 18-98d, as explained by Steve, requires the result reached by DOC and the Connecticut courts. However, Boyd argues that the statute, as applied to his situation by DOC and the Connecticut courts, violates his constitutional rights.8 Specifically, Boyd claims that this application of the statute unconstitutionally burdened his right to bring a pre-conviction double jeopardy challenge to his re-prosecution. In light of this, Boyd seeks credit for the duration of his double jeopardy challenge.9
Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), a habeas petition filed after April 24, 1996 may not be granted unless the state court's adjudication of the claim "resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). The U.S. Supreme Court has narrowly defined the term "clearly established Federal law" to mean "the governing legal principle or principles set forth by the Supreme Court at the time the state court renders its decision." Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 71-72, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003). Further, these governing principles must stem from the Court's holdings, not mere dicta. Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 660-61, 124 S.Ct. 2140, 158 L.Ed.2d 938 (2004).
A state court's decision may be "contrary to" clearly established federal law in two ways. First, a state court decision is contrary to clearly established state law "if the state court decides a case differently than Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). Second, the state court decision fails this test "if it applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth by [the Supreme Court]." Brown v. Payton, 544 U.S. 133, 141, 125 S.Ct. 1432, 161 L.Ed.2d 334 (2005).
Habeas relief is also proper if the state court's decision constitutes an "unreasonable application" of clearly established law. This, occurs "if the state court applie[d] [the Supreme Court's] precedents to the facts in an objectively unreasonable manner." Id. This means that, while the state court correctly identified the governing federal law, the state court's application of it was objectively unreasonable. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 408, 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000) (O'Connor, J., delivering the opinion of the Court). "Relief may also be available under this prong if the state court ... unreasonably fails to extend a legal rule to a context in which the rule reasonably should apply." Serrano v. Fischer, 412 F.3d 292, 296-97 (2d Cir.2005) (citing Kennaugh v. Miller, 289 F.3d 36, 45 & n. 2 (2d Cir.2002)).
AEDPA's "unreasonable application" requirement provides significant protection to state court decisions, because it prevents a federal court from granting a habeas petition merely because the state court's application of federal law Was incorrect. Williams, 529 U.S at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495 (...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
James v. Comm'r of Corr.
...than that advanced by the [respondent]?" See Walsh v. Jodoin , 283 Conn. 187, 199, 925 A.2d 1086 (2007) ; see also Boyd v. Lantz , 487 F.Supp.2d 3 (D. Conn. 2007). In his supplemental brief, the respondent asserts that allowing the petitioner to receive presentence confinement credit in the......
-
Anderson v. Comm'r of Corr.
...contemplates circumstances where time in prison could be converted to presentence confinement credit"); see generally Boyd v. Lantz , 487 F. Supp. 2d 3 (D. Conn. 2007). That is not the petitioner's claim in this ...