Johnson v. Williams, 81-1591
| Decision Date | 15 December 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-1591,81-1591 |
| Parties | Collin L. JOHNSON, a/k/a Samuel Glenn, Appellant v. Ralph L. WILLIAMS, Warden, Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
John F. McMahon (argued), Federal Public Defender, Newark, N. J., for Appellant.
James R. Zazzali, Atty. Gen. of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J., for appellees; Carol M. Henderson (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Div. of Criminal Justice, Princeton, N. J., of counsel and on the Brief.
OPINION OF THE COURT
In 1963, appellant Collin L. Johnson was convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon, in violation of the laws of Maryland, and sentenced to a term of 40 years at the Maryland House of Corrections. Johnson escaped from that facility in November 1971. A little over a year later, in December 1972, while still a fugitive from Maryland, Johnson was arrested in New Jersey and charged, under three separate indictments, with a variety of state crimes involving robbery and the use of a deadly weapon. The three indictments were tried separately. Johnson was convicted under the first indictment on October 26, 1973, was sentenced to a term of four to six years, and immediately began to serve that term at the Rahway State Prison in New Jersey. The Maryland authorities subsequently learned of Johnson's incarceration in New Jersey and lodged a detainer with the New Jersey prison authorities requesting the release of Johnson to their custody after completion of all New Jersey proceedings against him. On October 18, 1975, a trial began on the second New Jersey indictment against Johnson, and the jury returned a guilty verdict on November 18. On December 16, 1975, before Johnson was sentenced on that second conviction, he was paroled from his prison sentence under the first conviction and the Parole Commission, perhaps unaware of Johnson's second New Jersey conviction, released him to the Maryland authorities.
The New Jersey prosecutor lodged a detainer with the Maryland House of Corrections on February 5, 1976, requesting temporary custody of Johnson for sentencing. On March 19, Johnson was returned to New Jersey. At that time the third indictment was dismissed and he was sentenced under the second indictment to an aggregate term of 18 to 23 years in state prison, to be served consecutive to his Maryland sentence. Several days later Johnson was returned to Maryland, where he remained until his Maryland parole in December of 1979. When Johnson received his Maryland parole, he was returned to New Jersey to begin serving his sentence there.
Johnson alleges that New Jersey, by returning him to Maryland following his second trial in New Jersey and then bringing him back within its jurisdiction by detainer for sentencing, violated the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD), N.J.Stat.Ann. § 2A:159A-1 et seq. (West 1971), to which both New Jersey and Maryland are parties. The IAD provides that when a state party to the agreement obtains custody of a defendant from another participating state by means of a detainer, it must complete all criminal proceedings pending against the defendant in the receiving state before the defendant may be returned to the sending state. Alleging that New Jersey failed to satisfy this requirement, Johnson filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, maintaining that he was entitled to dismissal of the New Jersey indictment against him, and requesting the district court to order his release from New Jersey custody. Johnson also claimed that there were several other defects in New Jersey's conduct which, he asserted, constituted IAD violations. The district court held that no IAD violation occurred, and therefore denied Johnson's ...
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