Fields v. Suthers, 98SA168.

• Decision Date: 28 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98SA168.,98SA168.
• Parties: In re Paul FIELDS, Jr., Petitioner, v. John SUTHERS, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Corrections, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

984 P.2d 1167

In re Paul FIELDS, Jr., Petitioner, v. John SUTHERS, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Corrections, Respondent.

No. 98SA168.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

June 28, 1999.

Haddon, Morgan & Foreman, P.C., Norman R. Mueller, Ty Gee, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Petitioner.

Ken Salazar, Attorney General, Barbara McDonnell, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Michael E. McLachlan, Solicitor General, John Daniel Dailey, Deputy Attorney General, Paul S. Sanzo, First Assistant Attorney General Civil Litigation Section, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Respondent.

Justice BENDER delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The petitioner, Paul Fields, Jr., appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Bent County District Court. Fields was convicted of first-degree murder in 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His petition alleges that, in calculating his parole eligibility date, the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) illegally refuses to credit him with the 329 days that he spent in presentence confinement.¹ The district court denied the petition as premature because, even accepting Fields's argument as correct, the date that Fields claims should be his parole eligibility date is still more than a year in the future.

We agree that habeas corpus is not an appropriate remedy at this time. However, in the interests of justice and of judicial economy, we elect to treat this appeal as an original proceeding under C.A.R. 21 in the nature of mandamus. Reaching the merits of Fields's claim, we conclude that the DOC must credit Fields with his 329 days of presentence confinement in calculating his parole eligibility date.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

The relevant facts are not in dispute. On March 19, 1981, Fields was arrested for first-degree murder and incarcerated. He remained continuously incarcerated until February 11, 1982, when he was convicted in Arapahoe County District Court of one count of first-degree murder² and two counts of criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder.³ That same day, the trial court sentenced Fields to life imprisonment on the first-degree murder count,⁴ and he was remanded to the custody of the DOC.

The mittimus for this case reflects that Fields was incarcerated for 329 days from the date of his arrest until the date of sentencing. Fields's petition asserts that the DOC initially took his presentence confinement into account and calculated his parole eligibility date as March 19, 2001, which is twenty calendar years from the date of his arrest. The DOC subsequently recalculated Fields's parole eligibility date as February 11, 2002, twenty calendar years from the date of his sentencing. Thus, Fields's current parole eligibility date does not take into account the 329 days that he spent in presentence confinement.

Fields has attempted to seek redress from the courts for the DOC's refusal to grant him credit for the period of his presentence confinement on several occasions. First, he filed a pro se motion for reduction of sentence under Crim. P. 35(b) in the Arapahoe County District Court with the same judge who had originally sentenced him. In December 1996, without holding a hearing, the district court denied this motion, ruling that Rule 35 was not the proper vehicle for Fields to attack the calculation of his parole eligibility date. However, the court's order denying the motion suggested that the substance of Fields's claim potentially had merit:

If the Department of Corrections has, as [Fields] alleges, computed his initial parole eligibility without reference to his presentence credit, then the Department is imposing a sentence which violated the statutes of this state and the sentence ordered by this Court.

The court's order further suggested that Fields's claim would be reviewable under habeas corpus.

Fields then filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Arapahoe County District Court. In February 1997, the same district court judge denied this petition on the ground that Fields was not entitled to immediate relief because the date he claimed he should become eligible for parole was more than four years in the future.

Fields then filed a pro se petition for a writ of mandamus in the Arapahoe County District Court. In September 1997, a different district court judge denied the petition for mandamus, ruling that the determination of Fields's parole eligibility date was completely within the discretion of the DOC.

Two months later, although still not represented by counsel, a lawyer reviewing the order denying Fields's Rule 35 motion advised Fields that Bent County was the proper venue for the habeas corpus action suggested by the Arapahoe County District Court. Continuing to act pro se, Fields filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Bent County District Court, the denial of which is the subject of this appeal.

The Bent County District Court did not reach the merits of Fields's claim that the DOC denied him his statutory entitlement to 329 days of presentence confinement credit. The district court held, on its own motion, that Fields's petition was premature because, even under Fields's analysis, he would not be entitled to consideration for parole until 2001 at the earliest. Thus, like the Arapahoe County District Court, the Bent County District Court concluded that the remedy of habeas corpus was unavailable because Fields's claim was premature. This appeal followed.⁵

II. PROCEDURAL POSTURE AND THE UNAVAILABILITY OF HABEAS CORPUS RELIEF

We begin by addressing the procedural aspects of this case. The DOC claims that the district court correctly denied Fields's petition on the basis that Fields's claim was premature because he was not entitled to immediate relief. Fields argues that the writ of habeas corpus is broad enough to encompass the relief he seeks. Based on our case law interpreting the writ, we agree with the district court's conclusion that the petition was premature. However, we exercise our discretion to treat this case as an original proceeding in the nature of mandamus and to reach the merits of Fields's claim.

A.

The writ of habeas corpus is designed primarily to determine whether a person is being detained unlawfully and therefore should be immediately released from custody. See Jones v. Zavaras, 926 P.2d 579, 581 (Colo.1996)

. A petition for a writ of habeas corpus may only be dismissed without a hearing if the petition fails to establish a prima facie case either (1) that the petitioner is illegally confined and is entitled to immediate release; or (2) that the petitioner is suffering a serious infringement of a fundamental right. See Christensen v. People, 869 P.2d 1256, 1259 (Colo.1994); White v. People, 866 P.2d 1371, 1373 (Colo.1994); Kodama v. Johnson, 786 P.2d 417, 419 (Colo.1990). Habeas corpus relief may be available in some cases where complete discharge from custody will not result. See Naranjo v. Johnson, 770 P.2d 784, 786 (Colo.1989); Marshall v. Kort, 690 P.2d 219, 222 (Colo.1984). "However, the relief requested, if granted, must have some practical effect on the restraint of the prisoner at the time of the hearing." Kodama, 786 P.2d at 419 (emphasis added).

In Naranjo, this court held that habeas corpus was available as a remedy to adjudicate a prisoner's claim that he was being illegally denied consideration for discretionary parole. See Naranjo, 770 P.2d at 787-88

.⁶

However, there is a crucial fact that distinguishes Naranjo from the case before us. The prisoner in Naranjo asserted that he was eligible for parole consideration immediately. See id. at 786-87. Fields makes no such assertion here. Even assuming the facts alleged in Fields's petition to be true, his parole eligibility date is not until March 2001. Under these circumstances, we agree with the district court's analysis that Fields's petition for habeas corpus is premature, because the relief that Fields requests would not "have some practical effect on restraint of the prisoner at the time of the hearing." Kodama, 786 P.2d at 419 (emphasis added).⁷ Therefore, we hold that the district court correctly dismissed Fields's habeas corpus petition.⁸

B.

As a technical procedural matter, this case comes to us for review of the Bent County District Court's denial of a petition for a writ in the nature of habeas corpus and not for review of the Arapahoe County District Court's denial of Fields's petition for a writ in the nature of mandamus. However, we find that a writ in the nature of mandamus is the proper remedy for Fields's contentions. See Meredith v. Zavaras, 954 P.2d 597, 598 (Colo.1998)

(recognizing that this court may issue a writ in the nature of mandamus to compel the DOC to comply with a district court order directing the DOC to grant a prisoner credit for time spent in presentence confinement). We have the authority to suspend the rules of appellate procedure in a particular case in the interest of expediting a decision or for other good cause shown. See C.A.R. 2; People v. Young, 814 P.2d 834, 838 (Colo.1991). The record here demonstrates that the multiple petitions filed by Fields were the result of a pro se litigant's attempts to navigate a complex and difficult legal terrain. At least some of the repeat filings undoubtedly resulted from one district court judge's suggestion to Fields that his claim had merit but that it should be recast as a petition for a writ in the nature of habeas corpus and an attorney's suggestion to Fields that he had not yet filed in the proper venue. Moreover, we ultimately agree that Fields's claim has merit, albeit in mandamus rather than habeas corpus. Under these circumstances, it would be an elevation of form over substance for us to deny this appeal solely because Fields's claim in habeas corpus is premature. Judicial economy and the interests of justice dictate that we reach the merits of Fields's claim concerning his entitlement to...