Camper v. Norris
| Decision Date | 11 October 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-1970,94-1970 |
| Citation | 36 F.3d 782 |
| Parties | Tommy CAMPER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Larry NORRIS, Director, Arkansas Department of Corrections; Defendant-Appellant, Winston Bryant, Attorney General for the State of Arkansas, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Pamela Rumpz, Little Rock, AR (argued), for appellant.
Charles A. Banks, Little Rock, AR (argued) (Charles A. Banks and Mike Spades, Jr., on the brief), for appellee.
Before HANSEN, Circuit Judge, FLOYD R. GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.
The district court granted Tommy Camper's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, concluding that the State of Arkansas had waived jurisdiction by failing to incarcerate Camper until more than four years after his conviction was affirmed. The state appeals, and we reverse.
On August 31, 1988, Camper was convicted of robbery, found to be a habitual offender, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Camper appealed his conviction and was released on bond. While his appeal was pending, Camper was imprisoned for three months on an unrelated parole violation; he was released again on bond in January 1989. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed Camper's conviction, and the mandate was issued on November 8, 1989.
Although Camper had been released pending appeal, the computer records apparently indicated that he was still incarcerated. Therefore, when the circuit clerk's office received the mandate, a certified copy was mailed to the Arkansas Department of Corrections ("ADC"), rather than being sent to the sheriff's office with a warrant for Camper's arrest. A records supervisor testified that the ADC never received the mandate in Camper's case and that she would have contacted the clerk's office if she had received a mandate on a prisoner that was not currently in custody. Approximately one year after the mandate was issued, the sentencing judge discovered that Camper was not serving his sentence and commenced an investigation. Camper was arrested on January 10, 1994.
Camper petitioned the federal district court for a writ of habeas corpus, contending that the four-year delay in the execution of his sentence violated his due process rights. After conducting an evidentiary hearing, the district court credited Camper's testimony that he was unaware that his conviction had been affirmed until after his arrest. During the interim, Camper had made substantial changes in his life and had rehabilitated himself. The court determined that the state should have sent the mandate by certified mail and that the state was grossly negligent in allowing more than four years to elapse. The court concluded that the state had waived its jurisdiction over Camper and granted his release.
The waiver theory--that the state's conduct may result in the waiver of its jurisdiction over a criminal defendant--is premised on the fourteenth amendment's protection against arbitrary and capricious state action. Under this theory, "it is not sufficient to prove official conduct that merely evidences a lack of eager pursuit or even arguable lack of interest." Shelton v. Ciccone, 578 F.2d 1241, 1244 (8th Cir.1978) (quoting Piper v. Estelle, 485 F.2d 245, 246 (5th Cir.1973)). The habeas petitioner shoulders the heavy burden of establishing that the state's action was so affirmatively wrong or its inaction was so grossly negligent that requiring him to serve his sentence would be unequivocally inconsistent with " 'fundamental principals of liberty and justice.' " Mathes v. Pierpont, 725 F.2d 77, 78-79 (8th Cir.1984) (quoting Shelton, 578 F.2d at 1244 (citing Piper, 485 F.2d at 246)).
Camper's reliance on Shelton is misplaced. In Shelton, we remanded for an evidentiary hearing because the evidence suggested that the government's conduct rose to more than the mere failure to file a detainer. 578 F.2d at 1244-46. In this case, a hearing has already been held, and the only evidence of the state's negligence was its failure...
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