Com. v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 16 March 1987
• Citation: 399 Mass. 455,504 N.E.2d 1060
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Robert S. WILSON.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1060

504 N.E.2d 1060

399 Mass. 455

COMMONWEALTH v. Robert S. WILSON.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Franklin.

Argued Dec. 3, 1986.

Decided March 16, 1987.

Lois M. Lewis, West Newton, for defendant.

Stephen R. Kaplan, Sp. Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Com.

Before HENNESSEY, C.J., and WILKINS, LYNCH and O'CONNOR, JJ.

LYNCH, Justice.

The defendant, Robert S. Wilson, was convicted in 1977 of armed robbery of Joseph A. Sceposki and the murder in the second degree of Sceposki and Edward F. Flavin (the Greenfield charges). In 1981 he filed a motion under Mass.R.Crim.P. 30(a), 378 Mass. 900 (1979), to set aside the convictions based upon claimed violations of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (agreement). St. 1965, c. 892. The trial judge denied the motion and Wilson appeals. ¹ We transferred the case to this court on our own motion. We affirm.

The defendant was imprisoned in New Hampshire when the murder and armed robbery charges which are the subject of this appeal were instituted against him. The defendant was also convicted of the murders of Dr. Hugh Mahoney, his wife, Ruth, and their son, John, in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Commonwealth v. Wilson, 381 Mass. 90, 407 N.E.2d 1229 (1980). In order for the defendant to be prosecuted first for the Tewksbury murders and then for the present charges, he was transferred to Massachusetts under two executive agreements between the Governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire pursuant to the Uniform Criminal Interstate Rendition Act, G.L. c. 276, §§ 11-20R (1984 ed.). The defendant argues that these transfers were illegal, that the agreement was the exclusive method of transferring him to Massachusetts, and that because he was not tried on these charges within 120 days of being brought to Massachusetts and because he was returned to New Hampshire before his trial on these charges, in violation of the agreement, the charges must be dismissed.

The relevant facts, as stipulated by the parties and found by the judge, are as follows. On July 12, 1976, the defendant was incarcerated in the Cheshire County correctional facility in New Hampshire. He was serving a one-year sentence and was also being held in lieu of $50,000 bail on other pending charges. On that day, complaints were entered in the Lowell Division of the District Court Department charging the defendant with having committed the Tewksbury murders. A warrant was issued for the defendant's arrest.

On July 15, 1976, the office of the district attorney for the Northern District requested that the Governor of Massachusetts seek the defendant's rendition from the Governor of New Hampshire. On July 27, 1976, the Governors entered into an agreement for rendition of the defendant to Massachusetts. The Governor of New Hampshire agreed that he would permit the defendant to be released from "time to time" to officials of the Commonwealth in order that he might attend proceedings on the Massachusetts murder charges which were pending against him. The Governor of Massachusetts agreed on his part that, upon the completion of each proceeding, the Massachusetts officials would, at the request of New Hampshire, return the defendant to the custody of New Hampshire officials.

On September 22, 1976, a judge in the New Hampshire Superior Court granted rendition, after hearing. The defendant was transported to Massachusetts on October 6, 1976, where he was held at the Essex County house of correction. Thereafter, the defendant was transported between Massachusetts and New Hampshire several times for proceedings related to the Tewksbury murder charges.

Complaints charging the defendant with the Greenfield crimes were issued from the Greenfield Division of the District Court Department on November 10, 1976. On November 30, 1976, a detainer relating to these Greenfield charges was lodged with the New Hampshire State prison at Concord, New Hampshire, where the defendant was then incarcerated. In December, 1976, the defendant was transported to Massachusetts to answer indictments returned by a Middlesex County grand jury charging him with the Tewksbury murders. Immediately after his arraignment he was again returned to New Hampshire.

On January 12, 1977, a Franklin County grand jury returned the indictments from which the defendant now seeks relief, charging him with the Greenfield murders and the Sceposki robbery. On January 20, 1977, the Massachusetts State police lodged a new detainer with the New Hampshire authorities on the basis of the Franklin County indictments.

On February 11, 1977, the defendant was convicted of and sentenced for another New Hampshire armed robbery. He was taken again to Massachusetts in March for pretrial hearings in connection with the Tewksbury murders. He remained in Massachusetts until April 9, 1977, when he was returned to New Hampshire. He was finally transferred to Massachusetts for trial on the Tewksbury charges on April 28, 1977. On June 14, 1977, he was convicted of the Tewksbury murders. After the defendant was convicted of and sentenced for the Tewksbury murders, he was immediately remanded to the Essex County house of correction.

On May 15, 1977, while the Tewksbury trial was in progress, the Governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire entered into a second agreement pursuant to the provisions of G.L. c. 276, § 20K. ² By the terms of that agreement, New Hampshire agreed that the defendant could be "retained" by Massachusetts officials to attend proceedings on the Greenfield charges, and Massachusetts agreed that upon completion of each proceeding in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts officials at the request of New Hampshire would return the defendant to New Hampshire custody.

On June 16, 1977, the Commonwealth's petition for writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum was allowed. The defendant was arraigned on the Franklin County indictments and ordered held in Springfield without bail while awaiting trial. ³ Trial commenced on October 11, 1977.

On October 21, 1977, the jury returned verdicts of guilty of murder in the second degree on each of the two indictments charging murder, and a verdict of guilty of armed robbery.

This case requires us to examine the application of the Uniform Criminal Interstate Rendition Act, G.L. c. 276, §§ 11-20R (Uniform Act), and the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, both of which are in effect in this Commonwealth. ⁴ Both the Uniform Act and the agreement are concerned with obtaining the presence of persons charged with crime in one State who have removed to another State. They differ chiefly in their application: The Uniform Act applies to rendition proceedings involving Governors, whereas the agreement is concerned with the efforts of a prosecutor to secure the presence of a prisoner incarcerated in another State. ⁵ See also U.S. Const. art. IV, § 2 (requiring each State, on the demand of the executive authority of another State [receiving state] ⁶, to deliver any person charged in that State with "treason, felony, or other crime").

Under the Uniform Act the Governors of two States may enter into an agreement for the rendition of a person presently in the sending State before the conclusion of the proceedings against him or of the term of his sentence in that State, "upon such conditions relative to the return of such person to such other state at the expense of this commonwealth as may be agreed upon between the governor and the executive authority of such other state." G.L. c. 276, § 20K. This procedure was followed in the instant case. The Uniform Act further provides that before a prisoner may be surrendered he must first be brought before a judge in the sending State and afforded an opportunity to contest the validity of his transfer. G.L. c. 276, § 19. This procedure was also followed in the case of the defendant.

The agreement simplifies the rendition procedure in the case of a person imprisoned in the sending State. The central provisions of the agreement are contained in art. III and art. IV. Article III outlines a procedure by which a prisoner against whom a detainer ⁷ has been filed can demand a speedy disposition of the charges giving rise to the detainer. See Commonwealth v. Martens, 398 Mass. 674, 500 N.E.2d 282 (1986). Article IV, which is at issue here, sets forth the procedure by which a prosecutor who has lodged a detainer against a prisoner in another State can secure the prisoner's presence for disposition of the outstanding charges.

It is clear that the provisions of art. IV of the agreement ⁸ are triggered only when a "detainer" is filed with the sending State by the receiving State having untried charges pending against the prisoner and the receiving State files an appropriate "request" for temporary custody with the sending State. United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340, 343-344, 98 S.Ct. 1834, 1838-39, 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978).

Article IV(a ) provides that after the detainer has been lodged, the "appropriate officer" of the receiving State "shall be entitled" to have such prisoner "made available ... upon presentation of a written request for temporary custody or availability to the appropriate authorities" of the sending State. It is also required that the request be "approved, recorded and transmitted" by a competent court in the receiving State. ⁹

If the request referred to in art. IV(a ) is approved by the sending State, trial must begin within 120 days after the prisoner's arrival in the receiving State (or prior to his return to the sending State). Art. IV(c ). Art. IV(e ). Article V(c ) provides:

"If the appropriate authority shall refuse or fail to accept temporary custody of said person, or in the event that an action on the indictment, information or complaint on the basis of which the detainer has been lodged is not brought to trial within the period provided in Article III or Article IV hereof, the appropriate court of the jurisdiction where the indictment, information or complaint has been...