M. A. P. v. Ryan

• Decision Date: 29 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 5939.,5939.
• Citation: 285 A.2d 310
• Parties: M. A. P., a juvenile, Petitioner, v. Honorable Joseph M. F. RYAN, Jr., Respondent.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

285 A.2d 310

M. A. P., a juvenile, Petitioner, v. Honorable Joseph M. F. RYAN, Jr., Respondent.

No. 5939.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued September 24, 1971.

Decided December 29, 1971.

Carrie L. Fair, Public Defender Service, Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Leo N. Gorman, Asst. Corp. Counsel, with whom C. Francis Murphy, Corp. Counsel, and Richard W. Barton, Asst. Corp. Counsel, were on the answer, for respondent

Before HOOD, Chief Judge, and KELLY, and PAIR, Associate Judges.

HOOD, Chief Judge:

Petitioner, a juvenile of 17 years of age, was taken into custody by a police officer shortly after midnight and later in the same day taken to the Juvenile Branch of the Family Division of the Superior Court. There, on the basis of a complaint filed with the Intake Section, he was charged by sworn petition¹ with an offense which would constitute robbery if committed by an adult. Represented by counsel, petitioner denied the charge; the case was continued for trial; and petitioner was released on condition that he continue to live with his brother (presumably an adult) and that he seek employment.

Thereafter petitioner through counsel moved for "a probable cause hearing." His motion was denied and a motion for reconsideration was likewise denied. He then commenced in this court the present proceeding, a petition for writ of mandamus to compel the trial judge "to hold a probable cause hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold Petitioner for trial on the charge of robbery." The respondent trial judge, represented by the Corporation Counsel, filed an answer in opposition, and we heard oral argument.

In his petition and at oral argument petitioner relied heavily on the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Brown v. Fauntleroy, 143 U.S.App.D.C. 116, 442 F. 2d 838 (decided February 26, 1971). There, under circumstances quite similar to the present case, it was held that the juvenile was entitled to demand and receive a probable cause hearing.² Our first question is to what extent we are bound by the ruling in Brown. Answer to this question requires consideration of some of this court's historical background.

By Act of Congress of April 1, 1942 (Pub.L.No. 77-512) the Police Court of the District of Columbia and the Municipal Court of the District of Columbia were consolidated into a single court known as "The Municipal Court for the District of Columbia".³ The same Act created this court under the name of "The Municipal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia"⁴ as an intermediate appellate court to hear appeals from the newly created Municipal Court and from the Juvenile Court, with the provision that judgments of this court were subject to review by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by petition for allowance of an appeal.⁵

In the ensuing years the civil jurisdiction of The Municipal Court was increased⁶ and its name was changed to the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions.⁷ The name of this court was changed to its present name, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.⁸ The Court of General Sessions remained a court of limited jurisdiction and this court continued to be an intermediate appellate court.

On July 29, 1970 Congress enacted the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970.⁹ This Act, effective February 1, 1971, consolidated the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions, the Juvenile Court of the District of Columbia, and the District of Columbia Tax Court into a single court named the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, with increased jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, with provisions for increases in jurisdiction at specified times until August 1, 1973, when the Superior Court will become a court of general civil and criminal jurisdiction for the District of Columbia.

With respect to this court, the Court Reform Act declared that "M he highest court of the District of Columbia is the District of Columbia Court of Appeals." The Act eliminated the power of the United States Court of Appeals to review judgments of this court and provided that "[f]inal judgments and decrees of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals are reviewable by the Supreme Court of the United States in accordance with section 1257 of title 28, United States Code."¹⁰

As this court on February 1, 1971 became the highest court of the District of Columbia, no longer subject to review by the United States Court of Appeals, we are not bound by the decisions of the United States Court of Appeals rendered after that date. With respect to decisions of the United States Court of Appeals rendered prior to February 1, 1971, we recognize that they, like the decisions of this court, constitute the case law of the District of Columbia. As a matter of internal policy, we have adopted the rule that no division of this court¹¹ will overrule a prior decision of this court or refuse to follow a decision of the United States Court of Appeals rendered prior to February 1, 1971, and that such result can only be accomplished by this court en banc.

The decision of the United States Court of Appeals in Brown v. Fauntleroy, supra, was rendered after February 1, 1971, and thus this division of the court is not bound to follow Brown although, of course, we recognize that it is entitled to great respect.

[2] It may be argued that regardless of the absence of power of the United States Court of Appeals to review judgments of this court, we are bound to follow Brown because it was decided on federal constitutional grounds by the federal circuit court of appeals for this jurisdiction. This argument has been advanced in various of the States, and a number of the highest state courts and at least one federal circuit court of appeals have rejected it, holding that state courts may exercise their own judgment on a federal constitutional question until that question is answered by the Supreme Court.¹² We think this is a sound view and adopt it. Although we are not the highest court of a State we are, for this purpose at least, analogous to one.¹³

It may also be observed that the Court Reform Act unequivocally distributed the "judicial power in the District of Columbia" between the federal courts and the District of Columbia courts, allotting to each its own sphere and making neither subservient to the other.¹⁴

For the foregoing reasons we feel free to examine the holding in Brown and to either accept or reject it. After careful consideration, and with all respect due Brown and the court which rendered it, we have concluded that Brown was erroneously decided and should not be followed. We reached this conclusion for the following reasons.

I.

In holding that the right to a probable cause hearing is a constitutional right, Brown relied heavily on Cooley v. Stone, 134 U.S.App.D.C. 317, 414 F.2d 1213 (1969), which quoted with approval the following from the District Court's oral ruling:

No person can be lawfully held in penal custody by the state without a prompt judicial determination of probable cause. The Fourth Amendment so provides and this constitutional mandate applies to juveniles as well as adults.

No other authority was cited by Brown for the proposition that there is a constitutional right to a probable cause hearing, and it was forced to explain away the previous holding in Clarke v. Huff, 73 App.D.C. 351, 119 F.2d 204 (1941) that "[t]here is no constitutional right to a preliminary hearing prior to indictment or prior to trial." We have looked elsewhere and find that the overwhelming weight of authority, both federal and state, is that there is no constitutional right to a probable cause hearing.¹⁵

Assuming that cases such as Goldsby v. United States, 160 U.S. 70, 16 S.Ct. 216, 40 L.Ed. 343 (1895), Lem Woon v. Oregon, 229 U.S. 586, 33 S.Ct. 783, 57 L.Ed. 1340 (1913), and United States ex rel. Kassin v. Mulligan, 295 U.S. 396, 55 S.Ct. 781, 79 L.Ed. 1501 (1935), have not settled the question, as some authorities think they have, we have examined with care Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L. Ed.2d 387 (1970), the most recent case we have found where the Supreme Court considered the nature and purpose of a preliminary hearing. There it was held that such a hearing is a "critical stage" in a criminal prosecution and that at such hearing a defendant is constitutionally entitled to the assistance of counsel. We find nothing in the opinion of Justice Brennan, or the concurring opinions of Justices Black, Douglas, White and Harlan, or the dissenting opinions of the Chief Justice and Justice Stewart, even intimating that there is a constitutional right to a preliminary hearing. We do find intimations to the contrary. For example, Justice Brennan points out that in Alabama a preliminary hearing is not a required step in a prosecution, and that a prosecutor may seek an indictment directly from the grand jury without a preliminary hearing. 399 U.S. at 7-8, 90 S.Ct. 1999. Justice White refers to "jurisdictions" where the prosecutor is free to avoid preliminary hearings by taking cases directly to the grand jury. 399 U.S. at 17-18, 90 S.Ct. 1999. Neither Justice suggests that such procedure would deprive a defendant of a constitutional right. And the Chief Justice states that the purpose of a preliminary hearing either under Alabama law or the federal system is the same. 399 U.S. at 24, 90 S.Ct. 1999. It seems to us that if any of the Justices felt there was a constitutional right to a preliminary hearing there would have been some suggestion to that effect.

II.

Brown states that the fourth amendment "applies to everyone arrested for conduct defined as a crime and for which he remains subject to answer to the law. It is the arrest, not simply continued detention, to which the Amendment attaches." 442 F. 2d at 841. That sweeping language, read in context with the entire...