Meagher v. Clark
| Decision Date | 04 October 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-5483,90-5483 |
| Citation | 943 F.2d 1277 |
| Parties | William Joseph MEAGHER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John CLARK, Warden, Metropolitan Correctional Center, Miami, Florida, The United States Parole Commission, Benjamin Baer, Chairman, U.S. Parole Commission, and G. McKenzie Rast, Parole Commissioner, U.S. Parole Commission, Southeast Regional Office, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Marcia J. Silvers, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.
Dexter W. Lehtinen, U.S. Atty., Guy Lewis, Linda Collins Hertz, Harriett R. Galvin, Miami, Fla., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before FAY and BIRCH, Circuit Judges, and HOFFMAN *, Senior District Judge.
This case, which has been referred to as "most unusual" and "extraordinary" by the district judge and magistrate below, involves a habeas corpus petition by a federal prisoner, who seeks to have his federal sentence modified to show credit for time served in state custody. The case calls for us to examine the relationship between federal and state criminal prosecution, confinement, and sentencing.
In November 1975, William Meagher was convicted in federal court for unarmed robbery and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
He was paroled in November 1978 with 10 years, and one day, remaining on his federal sentence. While on release, he twice violated his parole: first, he was arrested and charged with battery of a police officer and then later, in Dade County, Florida, he was charged with three counts of armed robbery and kidnapping along with two counts of possession of a firearm during a felony
In July 1979, after a hearing, Meagher was found incompetent to stand trial and was remanded to the health authorities. After intervening periods of competency, as well as a further state charge of aggravated battery in Broward County, Florida, Meagher was ultimately found competent by a state circuit court judge in April, 1982, to stand trial for the Dade County offenses.
Pursuant to plea negotiations with the state authorities, Meagher agreed to plead nolo contendere to one armed robbery charge. In exchange, the state agreed to dismiss the remainder of the Dade County charges and to nolle prosequi the battery of a police officer charges. The apparently unwritten plea agreement with the state, called for a twenty-year sentence which was to run concurrently with a state sentence already imposed in the Broward County case, along with any federal prison time he was to receive as a result of the parole violation. Despite an inadvertent remark by the sentencing judge that the sentence was to run consecutive to the federal parole violation, 1 Meagher was sentenced in accordance with the terms of his plea agreement. The judge's written judgment and commitment order specifically stated that Meagher's sentence was to run concurrently with any pending federal parole violations.
In January 1986, after a hearing, the United States Parole Commission revoked Meagher's parole and ordered that the unexpired 10-year portion of his earlier federal sentence was to commence only upon release from state custody. The notice of action by the parole commission provided:
After receipt of this notice in April 1986, 2 Meagher initiated the prerequisite state remedies in July of that year. After denial of same, he sought habeas relief on this issue in April 1987. This habeas proceeding alleged that his prior plea of nolo contendere was now involuntary, because the parole commission's action did not comport with the plea agreement to the effect that the state and federal sentences were to run concurrently. The habeas proceeding on this issue was denied at various points for technical difficulties, until it came before this court.
In Meagher v. Dugger, 861 F.2d 1242 (11th Cir.1988), this court disposed of the technical challenges to Meagher's instant habeas petition and, while not ruling on the merits, noted:
The terms of the plea agreement were that his twenty-year sentence was to run concurrently with both his [prior state sentence] and any pending case against him for violation of federal parole.
* * * * * *
This Court takes a dim view of prosecutors who fail to fulfill the terms of their plea agreements. Placing the burden of objection on the Petitioner's shoulders hints at best of the State's carelessness ... and at the worst evinces a disregard * * * * * *
on the part of the State bordering on bad faith.
Prejudice [to the petitioner] arises because he sacrificed his right to a trial in exchange for an allegedly illusory sentence. An allegation that the defendant would not have pleaded nolo contendere if he had known that the sentence would not run concurrent to the parole violation will support federal habeas relief.
On December 23, 1988, four days after this court's ruling and remand to the district court, Meagher was released from state custody after completion of his state sentence, and was transferred to federal custody to begin serving the remaining 10 years of his federal sentence.
Meanwhile, on remand, the district court noted that two remedies were available for the breach of the plea agreement: (1) withdrawal of the guilty plea, and (2) specific performance. Withdrawal was unavailable to appellant because he had been transferred from state to federal custody. Specific performance of the plea agreement, i.e., granting federal credit for the state-served time, thus effecting the promise for concurrency, was the plaintiff's only available remedy. 737 F.Supp. 641.
The district court ruled, however, that it was powerless to grant this relief as such relief would interfere with the mandate of the Parole Commission and violate the principles of dual sovereignty.
Petitioner seeks credit on the federal sentence he has currently resumed serving, as a result of a federal parole violation, for time incarcerated under a now-voided, intervening state sentence. The basic factual, and some of the legal, underpinnings of this case are not disputed. As held by this court in Meagher v. Dugger, 861 F.2d 1242 (11th Cir.1988), petitioner has not received the major benefit of the plea bargain he struck with the state authorities--concurrency of his federal and state sentences. The district court below, on remand from that now-appealed decision, was correct in finding, as mentioned earlier, that ordinarily there are two remedies available for a government's breach of its plea agreement--withdrawal of the guilty plea and specific performance--and that the choice between the two is within the sound discretion of the court. Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 499, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971); United States v. Tobon-Hernandez, 845 F.2d 277, 280 (11th Cir.1988). The question this court must answer is whether such relief can be provided to the petitioner. Applying the principle of dual sovereignty to the instant facts, we must hold that it cannot be provided.
This court's predecessor, the former Fifth Circuit, applied the principle of dual sovereignty to bar similar relief in Scott v. United States, 434 F.2d 11 (5th Cir.1970). 3 In Scott, the court refused to grant a petitioner federal credit for time served under an invalid state sentence. In that case the Court of Appeals issued its ruling, per curiam, adopting the reasoning of the district court and attaching the lower court's findings as an appendix.
The facts of Scott were thus: the petitioner was serving time for state offenses when he received a federal sentence which was later held (this was an issue in Scott ) to be consecutive with his state time. The state convictions were subsequently set aside for failure to provide assistance of counsel and apparently were not retried. Scott then began service of his federal sentence and sought credit for the time served under the voided state sentences, claiming that, but for the state's action he would have spent such time in federal custody.
In denying the requested relief, the Scott court announced the rule for the predecessor to this circuit that a "defendant [is] not In Saulsbury v. United States, 591 F.2d 1028 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 857, 100 S.Ct. 118, 62 L.Ed.2d 77 (1979) our predecessor court again refused to grant federal credit in a case closely analogous to this one. Saulsbury was convicted of state offenses while on federal parole. At the time of the plea bargain with the state he had received notice from the Parole Commission that his federal parole had been revoked, and that the state sentence imposed was to run concurrently with his federal sentence. However, because of continued miscommunication between the federal and state authorities Saulsbury was not tendered by the state, nor accepted by the federal authorities, though this had been the clear intention of the state sentencing judge. Saulsbury served the remainder of his federal sentence after completion of his state confinement.
entitled to credit on federal sentence for time served on a state court sentence he was serving when convicted of the federal offense, though the state sentence was subsequently reversed." Though some facts are different, the principle of the Scott case applies to the instant case. There, as here, petitioner has alleged, at the state level, a constitutional deprivation--in that case, lack of counsel; in this case, a broken plea bargain. In Scott the service of the voided state time prevented the start of a federal sentence. Here, the state service precluded Meagher's resumption of his federal sentence after his
...To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Schmanke v. US Bureau of Prisons
...Bagley v. Rogerson, 5 F.3d 325, 329-30 (8th Cir.1993), citing Holscher v. Young, 440 F.2d 1283, 1290 (8th Cir.1971); Meagher v. Clark, 943 F.2d 1277, 1280 (11th Cir.1991); Pinaud v. James, 851 F.2d 27, 31 (2d Cir.1988); Scott v. United States, 434 F.2d 11, 21 (5th Cir.1970); Green v. United......
-
State v. Parker
...discretion of the federal Parole Commission. See, e.g., Meagher v. Dugger, 737 F.Supp. 641, 647 (S.D.Fla.1990), aff'd, Meagher v. Clark, 943 F.2d 1277 (11th Cir.1991); Pinaud v. James, 851 F.2d 27, 30 (2d Cir.1988); Saulsbury v. United States, 591 F.2d 1028, 1031 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 4......
-
Cozine v. Crabtree
...In some cases, the state court improperly ordered its sentence to run concurrently with a future sentence that had not yet been imposed. See id.; Pinaud v. James, 851 F.2d 27 (2d Cir.1988); Sackinger, 704 F.2d 29 (state court ordered sentence to run concurrently with future federal sentence......
-
U.S. v. Fuentes, 94-4916
...lacked the authority to order a federal sentence to run concurrently with an undischarged state sentence. See, e.g., Meagher v. Clark, 943 F.2d 1277, 1283 (11th Cir.1991) ("[F]ederal jail time [may] be computed only to include such time that the prisoner has served in confinement for the fe......
-
Sentencing
...sentence properly not credited to concurrent federal sentence because state offense unrelated to federal offense); Meagher v. Clark, 943 F.2d 1277, 1282-83 (11th Cir. 1991) (time served under state sentence later vacated does not apply toward federal sentence even if sentences intended to r......