Jacobs v. Carmel, 93SA20

• Decision Date: 14 February 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93SA20,93SA20
• Citation: 869 P.2d 207
• Parties: Terence Keijiro JACOBS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Harold CARMEL, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 207

869 P.2d 207

Terence Keijiro JACOBS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Harold CARMEL, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 93SA20.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

Feb. 14, 1994.

Rehearing Denied March 7, 1994.

Terence Keijiro Jacobs, pro se.

Gale A. Norton, Atty. Gen., Raymond T. Slaughter, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Timothy M. Tymkovich, Sol. Gen., Paul Farley, Deputy Atty. Gen., John August Lizza, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Stacy L. Worthington, Asst. Atty. Gen., Human Resources Section, Denver, for respondent-appellee.

Justice LOHR delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Terence Keijiro Jacobs appeals from a judgment of the Pueblo County District Court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm the district court's judgment.

I

In 1983, Jacobs was charged in El Paso County District Court with the offenses of attempt to commit first degree murder, §§ 18-3-102 and 18-2-101, 8 C.R.S. (1978 &amp 1983 Supp.), first degree assault, § 18-3-202, 8 C.R.S. (1978 & 1983 Supp.), and crime of violence, § 16-11-309, 8 C.R.S. (1978 & 1983 Supp.). Jacobs, who was represented by counsel, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. By stipulation, the issue was tried to the court. Following an evidentiary hearing the court found Jacobs not guilty by reason of insanity and committed him to the custody of the Director of the Department of Institutions in accordance with section 16-8-105(4), 8 C.R.S. (1978) (now section 16-8-105(4), 8A C.R.S. (1986)).

Jacobs sought relief from the order of commitment under Crim.P. 35(c) by a motion filed in El Paso County District Court asserting that he was not advised of the effect and consequences of his plea and that he was denied effective assistance of counsel. Jacobs contended that as a result of these alleged deficiencies in the commitment proceedings, he should be permitted to withdraw his plea.

The district court denied the motion without a hearing, and the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed. See People v. Jacobs, No. 91CA0393 (Colo.App. Feb. 13, 1992) (not selected for publication), cert. denied, No. 92SC239 (Colo. July 27, 1992). The court of appeals noted that a Crim.P. 35(c) motion may be denied without a hearing if the motion, the files, and the record clearly establish that the moving party is not entitled to relief. Id., slip op. at 1. The court of appeals noted that Jacobs claimed that he was not fully advised by the court of the effect and consequences of his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, specifically that if the plea was sustained, he would be committed to the Colorado State Hospital until found eligible for release. Id. The court of appeals also noted that Jacobs asserted that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because his counsel did not advise him of the effect and consequences of a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Id. at 1-2. The court of appeals observed, however, that the entry of plea form accompanying Jacobs's Crim.P. 35(c) motion and dated April 3, 1985, contained a statement in Jacobs's own handwriting stating as follows: " 'Furthermore that a finding of defendant insan[e] may result in his confinement in an institution for the criminal[ly] insane for an indeterminate period of time, possibly even the remainder of his natural life.' " Id. at 2 [brackets in court of appeals' opinion].

The court of appeals also noted that Jacobs's counsel, without objection by him, entered the plea in open court on May 3, 1985. The court of appeals held that the motion clearly established that Jacobs was not entitled to relief and therefore the district court properly denied the motion without a hearing. Id. We denied Jacobs's petition for writ certiorari to the court of appeals on July 27, 1992.

On September 18, 1992, Jacobs filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Pueblo County District Court, the venue within which he is confined, naming as respondents the Colorado Department of Institutions and Harold Carmel, M.D., Superintendent of Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, asserting that he is being illegally detained because the alleged failure of the El Paso County District Court to advise him of the nature and consequences of his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity violated his rights to due process of law and equal protection of the laws under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article II, section 25, of the Colorado Constitution. Jacobs asserted as well that he was denied effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article II, section 16, of the Colorado Constitution because counsel "failed to conduct pretrial investigation into the case against Petitioner and permitted a witness to commit perjury on the stand during the sanity trial." These are essentially the same grounds for relief that Jacobs asserted in his Crim.P. 35(c) motion.

On December 14, 1992, the district court ordered that a writ of habeas corpus issue returnable on December 22. Prior to the scheduled hearing the Department of Institutions and the Superintendent moved "to dismiss the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus" on the basis that it raised the same issues presented and resolved unfavorably to Jacobs in People v. Jacobs. On December 22 the district court heard arguments by telephonic conference with Jacobs and an attorney for the Department and the Superintendent. It determined that the improper advisement claim was precisely the same claim resolved against Jacobs in People v. Jacobs. As to the ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the district court found that because Jacobs was found not guilty by reason of insanity his plea was sustained and he could not have been prejudiced by ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court therefore held that the petition for writ of habeas corpus was without merit and the writ had been improvidently issued. Accordingly, it ordered the writ withdrawn and the petition for writ of habeas corpus denied.

Jacobs appealed the district court's order, asserting that the district court erred by not following the procedures prescribed in the Habeas Corpus Act in determining the merits of the issues he raised and by denying an evidentiary hearing on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. We conclude, however, that we need not address these issues because the relief Jacobs seeks may not be obtained by writ of habeas corpus. We therefore affirm the judgment denying the writ of habeas corpus but on grounds different than those advanced by the district court.

II

The essential purpose of habeas corpus is to determine whether a person is unlawfully detained. Duran v. Price, 868 P.2d 375, at 377 (Colo.1994); Kailey v. Colorado State Dep't of Corrections, 807 P.2d 563, 566 (Colo.1991). However, "[h]abeas corpus is an appropriate remedy to redress an unlawful restraint of one's liberty when no other form of relief is available." Kailey, 807 P.2d at 566. Habeas corpus relief is thus not available when other legal remedies exist, such as a motion under Crim.P. 35. Mulkey v. Sullivan, 753 P.2d 1226, 1232 (Colo.1988). We have not previously considered whether relief may be obtained by habeas corpus when the petitioner alleges defects arising from proceedings in the district court leading to the court's acceptance of the petitioner's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to criminal charges.

If a person is found not guilty by reason of insanity, "the court shall commit the defendant to the custody of the department of institutions until such time as he is found eligible for release." § 16-8-105(4), 8A C.R.S. (1986). We have recognized the significant differences between the commitment procedures following an adjudication of criminal insanity and civil commitment procedures. People v. Chavez, 629 P.2d 1040, 1052 (Colo.1981). "[T]hese differences are justified by the public safety interests involved in an insanity adjudication." Id. at 1052-53. Although a person committed under section 16-8-105(4) will not actually have been convicted of the crime charged, his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity "is a plea in the nature of confession and avoidance ... [and] [t]he defendant's denial of guilt is predicated on a claim of mental disease or defect which, by reason of its existence, relieves him of criminal responsibility for his conduct." Chavez, 629 P.2d at 1047. Section 13-45-102, 6A C.R.S. (1987), pertaining to habeas corpus relief in civil cases, does not apply because of the significant differences between criminal and civil commitment.

We conclude for a number of reasons that a motion under Crim.P. 35(c), rather than habeas corpus, is the proper way for a petitioner to challenge the validity of his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, and to raise a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in the criminal proceeding leading up to the petitioner's criminal insanity commitment.

First, the grounds on which a court may inquire by writ of habeas corpus into the legality or justice of a judgment or decree of a legally constituted court are limited:

(2) If it appears that the prisoner is in custody by virtue of process from any court legally constituted, he can be discharged only for some of the following causes:

(a) Where the court has exceeded the limit of its jurisdiction, either as to the matter, place, sum, or person;

(b) Where, though the original imprisonment was lawful, yet by some act, omission, or event which has subsequently taken place, the party has become entitled to his discharge (c) Where the process is defective in some substantial form required by law;

(d) Where the process, though in proper form, has been issued in a case or under circumstances where the law does not allow process or orders for imprisonment or arrest to issue;

(e) Where, although in proper form, the process has been issued or executed by a person either unauthorized to issue or execute the same or...