Joseph W. Hutchinson Iii v. State (in Re State v. Medell Banks

• Decision Date: 30 December 2010
• Docket Number: 1091018.
• Citation: 66 So.3d 220
• Parties: Joseph W. HUTCHINSON IIIv.STATE of Alabama.(In re State of Alabamav.Medell Banks, Jr.).
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

66 So.3d 220

Joseph W. HUTCHINSON III

v.STATE of Alabama.(In re State of Alabama

v.Medell Banks, Jr.).

1091018.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Dec. 30, 2010.

Richard J. Riley, Birmingham, for appellant.Troy King, atty. gen., and Kristi O. Wilkerson, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.BOLIN, Justice.

On August 26, 1999, Joseph W. Hutchinson III, an attorney, was appointed to represent Medell Banks, Jr., an indigent defendant, in a capital-murder case. On May 7, 2001, Banks entered a “best-interest” plea of guilty to manslaughter for the death of his wife's newborn baby. On June 25, 2001, the trial court sentenced Banks to 15 years' imprisonment. Banks later moved to withdraw his guilty plea based on newly discovered evidence indicating that his wife could not have been pregnant and bore the child Banks was accused of killing. The trial court denied Banks's motion to withdraw his plea, and Banks appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. On August 9, 2002, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that a manifest injustice had occurred after Banks obtained test results that showed that his wife could not have been pregnant when she was allegedly carrying the child Banks was accused of killing, and it reversed the trial court's judgment and remanded the cause for the trial court to grant Banks's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Banks v. State, 845 So.2d 9 (Ala.Crim.App.2002). The facts underlying this case are set out in the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion. The capital-murder charges against Banks remained pending after Banks withdrew his guilty plea. Eventually, Banks entered a best-interest plea to tampering with physical evidence, a misdemeanor. The capital-murder charge was dismissed. Banks was sentenced to time served.

On December 16, 2008, Hutchinson, who had represented Banks throughout his trial and appellate proceedings, filed two attorney-fee declarations. The first fee declaration was for work completed in the proceedings in the trial court before the appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Hutchinson sought the following in that fee declaration: in-court expenses of $1,635, representing 27.25 hours at $60 an hour; out-of-court expenses of $18,557.60, representing 463.94 hours at $40 an hour; extraordinary expenses approved in advance by the trial court of $3,803.95; and overhead expenses of $17,191.65, representing 491.19 hours at $35 an hour. Hutchinson's second fee declaration involved work completed after Banks filed his appeal, including: in-court expenses of $2,610, representing 43.50 hours at $60 an hour; out-of-court expenses of $28,046, representing 701.15 hours at $40 an hour; extraordinary expenses approved in advance by the court of $5,143.15; and overhead expenses of $26,062.75, representing 744.65 hours at $35 an hour.

The trial judge who presided over the criminal proceedings against Banks had retired, and a new judge was assigned Hutchinson's fee declarations. Following a hearing, the trial court reduced Hutchinson's claims for out-of-court expenses and for overhead expenses for both the trial and appellate proceedings. Hutchinson filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which transferred the case to this Court.

We are first presented with a jurisdictional question in a proceeding arising from a criminal case. A history of cases addressing appellate jurisdiction in such cases is necessary.

In Ex parte Galanos, 796 So.2d 390 (Ala.2000), counsel for several indigent defendants in criminal cases, upon conclusion of counsel's services, sought attorney fees and reimbursement of certain expenses. At that time, Mobile County had a system for reviewing attorney-fee declarations that provided that the responsibility for reviewing all fee declarations rotated among the judges in the circuit on an annual basis. The judge whose responsibility it was that year to review the fee declarations reduced counsel's attorney-fee declarations. Counsel then filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Court of Criminal Appeals challenging Mobile County's rotation system and challenging the reduction in his fees. The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that the judges who presided over the defendants' trials should review the declarations for the cases over which they presided and that Mobile County should revise its system for reviewing attorney-fee declarations. Seven of the judges who heard criminal cases in Mobile County then filed a de novo petition for a writ of mandamus with this Court, arguing that counsel's petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals was improper because he had another adequate remedy available to him, i.e., filing a declaratory-judgment action. This Court agreed and held:

“The lack of another adequate remedy is a prerequisite to the issuance of a writ of mandamus. Ex parte Martin, 703 So.2d 883, 884 (Ala.1996). [Counsel] does not deny that a declaratory-judgment proceeding constitutes an available adequate remedy, but argues that had he sought a declaratory judgment and won, the likelihood is that the same issues presented by this mandamus petition would have been presented to this Court in an appeal by the losing party. Had the scenario presented by [counsel] occurred, this Court might have found itself faced with the same legal question; however, a critical difference would have existed: there would have been before this Court a fully developed record from a declaratory-judgment proceeding.

“Section 6–6–223[, Ala.Code 1975,] provides that ‘[a]ny person ... whose rights ... are affected by a statute ... may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the ... statute ... and obtain a declaration of rights, status or other legal relations thereunder.’ We therefore conclude that [counsel] had an ‘adequate legal remedy’ available by a means other than a writ of mandamus, and that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in granting [counsel's] petition. Although at oral argument of this case counsel for the petitioners informed this Court that Mobile's indigent-defense system has been revised to remedy the problems that were the basis for [counsel]'s original petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals, we emphasize that § 6–6–223 clearly provides [counsel] with ‘another adequate remedy’ and that remedy is not foreclosed to him by the decision in this case.

“We also note that ‘properly invoked jurisdiction’—the fifth requisite for obtaining mandamus relief—is absent here. Ala. Const.1901, Amend. No. 328, § 6.03 [now § 141, Ala. Const. 1901 (Off.Recomp.) ], establishes the jurisdiction for Alabama's Courts of Appeals. That section provides, in pertinent part:

“ ‘(c) The court of criminal appeals and the court of civil appeals shall have no original jurisdiction except the power to issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of appellate jurisdiction of the courts of appeals.

“ ‘(d) The court of criminal appeals shall have and exercise original jurisdiction in the issuance and determination of writs of quo warranto and mandamus in relation to matters in which said court has appellate jurisdiction. Said court shall have authority to issue writs of injunction, habeas corpus and such other remedial and original writs as are necessary to give it a general superintendence and control of jurisdiction inferior to it and in matters over which it has exclusive appellate jurisdiction; to punish for contempts by the infliction of a fine ..., and to exercise such other powers as may be given to said court by law.’

“Section 12–3–9, Ala.Code 1975, provides that ‘[t]he Court of Criminal Appeals shall have exclusive appellate jurisdiction of all misdemeanors, including the violation of town and city ordinances, habeas corpus and all felonies, including all post conviction writs in criminal cases.’ Clearly, jurisdiction for [counsel]'s mandamus petition was not proper in the Court of Criminal Appeals.

“On the other hand, § 12–3–10[, Ala.Code 1975,] provides that ‘[t]he Court of Civil Appeals shall have exclusive appellate jurisdiction of all civil cases where the amount involved, exclusive of interest and costs, does not exceed $50,000 ... and all extraordinary writs arising from appeals in said cases.’ Thus, after litigation in the circuit court, a judgment in a declaratory-judgment action may be appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals.”

796 So.2d at 392–93.

In Ex parte Smith, 794 So.2d 1089 (Ala.2001), the defendant, who was indigent and charged with capital murder, sought copies of a videotaped confession he had made to police officers at the time of his arrest, a videotape the police had made of the crime scene, and a compact disc on which the police had stored digital photographs of the crime scene. The State granted the defendant's attorneys unlimited access to the videotapes and the compact disc. The State also agreed to furnish the attorneys with copies of the videotapes and the compact disc on the condition that the attorneys pay the police in advance for the costs of copying them. The defendant's attorneys moved the circuit court to order the State to furnish them the copies free of charge. The circuit court entered an order directing the police to make copies of the videotapes and the compact disc and to furnish those copies to the defendant's attorneys together with a statement for the copying charges. The circuit court's order further stated that, at the conclusion of the criminal proceeding against the defendant, the circuit court would order the payment of the copying charges from the Fair Trial Tax Fund. The State then petitioned the Court of Criminal Appeals for a writ of mandamus ordering the circuit court to vacate its order and to issue a new order directing the defendant's attorneys to pay in advance for its costs in copying the videotapes and compact disc and to obtain reimbursement later in accordance with § 15–12–21, Ala.Code 1975. The Court of Criminal Appeals issued the writ.

The defendant then petitioned this Court for a...