Jones v. Angelone

• Decision Date: 03 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-6383,95-6383
• Citation: 94 F.3d 900
• Parties: Benjamin Henderson JONES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Ronald J. ANGELONE, Director, Department of Corrections of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 900

94 F.3d 900

Benjamin Henderson JONES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Ronald J. ANGELONE, Director, Department of Corrections of

the Commonwealth of Virginia, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 95-6383.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 6, 1996.

Decided Sept. 3, 1996.

ARGUED: Michelle Jeanette Anderson, Appellate Litigation Clinical Program, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Linwood Theodore Wells, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Steven H. Goldblatt, Amy J. Fastenberg, Student Counsel, Brian A. Hill, Student Counsel, Appellate Litigation Clinical Program, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. James S. Gilmore, III, Attorney General of Virginia, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.

Before MURNAGHAN, WILKINS, and LUTTIG, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge LUTTIG wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge WILKINS joined. Judge MURNAGHAN wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment.

OPINION

LUTTIG, Circuit Judge:

Appellant, Benjamin Henderson Jones, fled the Commonwealth of Virginia after murdering his mother and half-brother on January 8, 1975. He eluded authorities until April 20, 1975, when he was arrested in New York City on unrelated charges of armed robbery. As soon as Virginia officials learned that Jones was in New York, they began efforts to obtain temporary custody of him. New York refused to temporarily surrender Jones to Virginia officials, and, over the next ten years, Virginia officials made repeated, but unsuccessful, efforts to have Jones returned to Virginia. Finally, on January 28, 1986, Virginia officials succeeded in their efforts to have Jones returned to the Commonwealth. Jones was then indicted, tried, and convicted of murdering his mother and his half-brother, and sentenced to life imprisonment plus twenty years. After exhausting his state remedies, Jones filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court challenging his state murder conviction. Jones alleged, inter alia, that his conviction was obtained in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because of the delay between the commission of the murders and his arrest on those charges. The district court, after holding an evidentiary hearing, denied habeas relief. Finding no error, we now affirm.

I.

In the early morning hours of January 8, 1975, Jones shot and killed his mother, Marie Gladys Jones, and his half-brother, William Anthony Hall, as they slept in their home in Wise County, Virginia. Later that same day, the Wise County Sheriff's Department issued an arrest warrant for Jones, relying on the eye-witness accounts of the shootings provided by Jones' siblings. At the time the warrants issued, Jones' whereabouts were unknown to Virginia authorities.

A week after the murders, on January 15, 1975, an Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise County, Joseph Kuczko, wrote to the United States Attorney in Roanoke, Virginia, seeking the FBI's assistance in locating Jones, requesting that federal warrants for unlawful flight be issued, and suggesting that Jones might be found in New York. J.A. at 168. When Wise County officials thereafter learned that Jones was in fact in New York, they sent a letter to the New York City Police Department requesting that New York surrender Jones to Virginia once he was apprehended. The letter, which was accompanied by two warrants for murder to serve as detainers, J.A. at 167, informed the New York authorities of Virginia's intent to seek Jones' extradition if Jones was unwilling to waive extradition. J.A. at 167.

Jones was arrested for armed robbery in New York City on April 20, 1975. J.A. at 41. On July 16, 1975, prior to Jones' trial and conviction for this robbery, Jones was transported to a New York state court, where he was informed by his lawyer that two officials from Virginia were seeking to extradite him on the Virginia warrants for the murder of his mother and half-brother. J.A. at 43-44, 56-57. Precisely what transpired at the court on July 16 is unclear. But, according to Jones' own testimony, he was brought to a New York Court at 100 Centre Street in New York City on that day and "told by a Lawyer that there were two assistant attorney generals in Court from Virginia," J.A. at 43, and that "they were trying to extradite [him] back" on the warrants for murder. J.A. at 57. Jones testified that, although he "didn't appear in Court [him]self," his "Lawyer told [him] that the Judge dismissed the complaints and the warrants." J.A. at 43-44; see also J.A. at 18-19; Supp. J.A. at 4 (Jones' sworn affidavit) ("[E]xtradition proceedings were held in Supreme Court, New York County, 100 Centre Street in 1975. They were dismissed for failure of the governor to issue a warrant."). As the magistrate found, the Commonwealth's efforts to have Jones returned to Virginia for trial ultimately proved unsuccessful. J.A. at 18-19.

Insofar as can be determined, Virginia next formally attempted to obtain custody of Jones in 1982. J.A. at 19 (finding of fact). As noted by the district court, it appears that at that time Virginia renewed its efforts to obtain Jones for trial because of the reappearance of an eyewitness with whom officials had understandably lost contact following New York's initial refusal to allow Virginia temporary custody of Jones. J.A. at 19. Among other actions taken by Virginia officials to obtain custody of Jones in 1982, Kuczko wrote the head of the prison in New York where Jones was incarcerated and requested temporary custody of Jones, filed Form V of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, and completed an application for extradition under the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act. J.A. at 19, 158-65. As found by the magistrate, "Jones admitted to going to court in 1982 regarding the charges in Virginia, but it is unclear what happened because Jones was removed from the courtroom after becoming involved in an argument." J.A. at 19. According to Jones' testimony, during these proceedings he "cussed the Judge out" and "told [the guards] when the cuffs come off, if you put your hands on me, I will try to kill as many of you as I can in defense of myself." J.A. at 45. As they had been in 1975, however, the Wise County authorities were again unsuccessful in having Jones returned to Virginia. J.A. at 19 (finding of fact).

Throughout 1985, Virginia made numerous additional efforts to obtain Jones. See, e.g., J.A. at 50, 146-51, 155. As with its earlier efforts, these efforts, too, were rebuffed either by New York State (apparently, in part because it wanted assurances that Jones was ineligible for capital punishment, see J.A. at 122, 129; Supp. J.A. at 1), ¹ or by Jones, who vigorously contested extradition, refused to sign papers allowing Virginia officials to bring him back to Virginia, and filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in New York state court challenging the Virginia warrants, see J.A. at 45, 47, 48, 114, 146-51, 155; Supp. J.A. at 2-5. In fact, from 1982 forward, it appears that Jones may have attempted to thwart Virginia's efforts by violating prison regulations in order to postpone his parole date and the exchange of custody. J.A. at 19-20, 109-10, 112, 122, 130-31. ²

Virginia officials finally succeeded in having Jones returned to Virginia on January 28, 1986. He was indicted on July 21, 1986, and, on January 28, 1987, Jones was finally tried for the murder of his mother and his half-brother. ³ Jones' defense at trial was that he could not have committed the murders because he was living at the Elk Hotel in New York City continuously from December 23, 1974, until April 20, 1975. After hearing the evidence, which included Jones' siblings' eye-witness accounts of Jones shooting his mother and half-brother multiple times, ⁴ the jury convicted Jones of both murders sentencing him to life imprisonment for the murder of his mother and to twenty years for the murder of his half-brother.

After his conviction became final, Jones filed the instant habeas corpus action, raising eight issues. The district court dismissed the petition, holding that seven of the claims were procedurally defaulted. The district court held that Jones' remaining claim, that the delay between his arrest in January 1986 and his trial in January 1987 violated his right to a speedy trial, was meritless. On appeal, we affirmed the dismissal of the seven procedurally defaulted claims, but we remanded the case for a hearing to determine whether Jones could "make out a Fifth Amendment due process violation" "as it relates to the delay between issuance of the warrant and his arrest." Jones v. People of the Commonwealth of Virginia, No. 92-6989, 1993 WL 62079, at * 2 (4th Cir. Mar. 8, 1993). On remand, a hearing was held before a magistrate judge. The district court, over objections from both parties, adopted most, but not all, of the magistrate's report, concluding that Jones had failed to "meet his burden t o show actual prejudice" and that "the evidence adduced at the hearing clearly showed that petitioner was at least as blameworthy for the delay as respondent." J.A. at 13-14. The district court dismissed Jones' petition for a writ of habeas corpus, and this appeal followed.

II.

We have previously held that, in determining whether preindictment delay violates the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, the following analysis is to be applied:

[T]he burden [is] on the defendant to prove actual prejudice. Assuming the defendant can establish actual prejudice, then the court must balance the defendant's prejudice against the government's justification for delay. "The basic inquiry then becomes whether the government's action in prosecuting after substantial delay violates 'fundamental conceptions of justice' or 'the community's sense of fair play and decency.' "

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