Nelms v. State
| Decision Date | 26 January 1976 |
| Citation | 532 S.W.2d 923 |
| Parties | Sammy Lee NELMS, Petitioner, v. STATE of Tennessee, Respondent. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Edward G. Thompson, Shelby Couny, Public Defender, Walker Gwinn, Asst. Public Defender, Memphis, for petitioner.
R. A. Ashley, Jr., Atty. Gen., Alex B. Shipley, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for respondent.
We granted certiorari in this cause to determine the sole question of whether the State's failure to bring petitioner to trial within one hundred eighty (180) days violates the Interstate Compact on Detainers, T.C.A. § 40--3901 et seq., and voids the indictment and conviction under the terms of that statute. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a split decision, found that it did not. We disagree and reverse the conviction of petitioner.
The Shelby County Grand Jury returned an indictment against petitioner on June 12, 1973, on the charge of robbery by use of a deadly weapon. On that date petitioner was serving a sentence on a prior conviction in the Iowa Men's Reformatory, located in Anamosa, Iowa.
On June 15, 1973, a letter from the Shelby County Sheriff's Office with a certified copy of the capias was mailed to the Sheriff of Scott County, Iowa, requesting Iowa officials to detain petitioner for Tennessee authorities.
On June 19, 1973, pursuant to Article IV(a) of the Interstate Compact on Detainers, the District Attorney General of Shelby County made a request to the warden of Iowa State Men's Reformatory for the temporary custody of petitioner for the purpose of trying him on the indictment returned against him in Shelby County.
On June 21, 1973, petitioner, pursuant to Article III(a) of the Compact, requested final disposition of the indictment within one hundred eighty (180) days. This request was later acknowledged as being on file in the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.
On June 22, 1973, the warden of the Iowa State Men's Reformatory acknowledged to the Sheriff of Shelby County that he had received Shelby County's detainer. The warden also advised of two prior detainers issued by Mississippi and Illinois.
Thereafter no follow-up action on petitioner's request for final disposition was taken by the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, and on January 4, 1974, that office was notified by a different warden of the Iowa State Men's Reformatory that the one hundred eighty (180) day period had expired and the Shelby County detainer was null and void under Article III(a) and V(c) of the Compact.
On January 8, 1974, the District Attorney General renewed his request for temporary custody of petitioner, pointing out that a form for request of temporary custody had been mailed to the Iowa institution on June 19, 1973, and that no offer of release to temporary custody had been received from Iowa authorities.
On February 1, 1974, the warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa acknowledged custody of petitioner, and informed the District Attorney General that Iowa authorities had failed to notify Tennessee that petitioner was available for release to temporary custody after receipt of the request petition dated June 19, 1973.
Petitioner was later released by Iowa and tried in Shelby County on April 12, 13, 1974, and was convicted of the crime of robbery with a deadly weapon. Petitioner was sentenced to fifteen (15) years in the penitentiary to run consecutively with the Iowa sentence.
Prior to trial, petitioner filed a timely motion to dismiss the indictment because of failure to comply with the Interstate Compact on Detainers. The trial court denied this motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the denial.
In its answer to the Petition for Certiorari the State makes two arguments. First it argues that the Shelby County District Attorney General was justified in not following up on his request for temporary custody because Iowa authorities gave notice that two other states had filed prior detainers. The State views this as a denial of a request for temporary costudy and sufficient to relieve the District Attorney General from the responsibility of bringing the petitioner to trial within the one hundred eighty (180) day period. We disagree.
It should be noted that there is nothing in the record to show that the District Attorney General had knowledge of the correspondence between the Shelby County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa authorities. The Iowa warden's reply to the Shelby County Sheriff's detainer request was not a response to the request for temporary custody, as contemplated in the Compact.
But assuming that the District Attorney General was aware of the prior detainers lodged against petitioner, that would not have affected his actions under the Compact as the presence of a detainer lodged against an individual has no effect on the ability of that individual to be temporarily removed from the state in which he is incarcerated and tried in another state. A different situation would be presented, however, if both Mississippi and Illinois had made prior requests for temporary custody so that petitioner could be tried in those states. The correct procedure in that situation would have been for the Shelby County District Attorney General to have made a motion for a continuance pursuant to Article III(a) of the Act.
The record does not reflect whether Mississippi or Illinois had made requests for temporary custody of the petitioner, but it does reflect that no motion for continuance was made by the District Attorney General.
We hold that the prior detainers lodged against petitioner did not justify the State's failure to follow up on petitioner's request for final disposition.
Secondly, the State maintains that it should not be prejudiced because Iowa authorities negligently failed to provide Tennessee authorities with an offer of temporary custody as provided by Article V(a) of the Compact. This position necessarily encompasses the view that the burden is on the defendant to insure that he is temporarily released from custody so that he may stand trial in another state. The statute clearly does not place such a burden on the defendant. It merely requires that the defendant cause '. . . to be delivered to the prosecuting officer and the appropriate court of the prosecuting officer's jurisdiction written notice of the place of his imprisonment and his request for a final disposition to be made of the indictment . . .' T.C.A. § 40--3901, Article III(a). The petitioner clearly complied with this provision.
Article V(a) requires the state where the defendant is in custody to make an offer of release to temporary custody whenever a prisoner makes a request for final disposition of charges against him, or when a request for temporary custody is received from a prosecuting officer. Iowa authorities did not comply with this provision, nor did Tennessee authorities make any followup inquiry as to why an offer of temporary custody was not made. Petitioner should not be charged with the responsibility of insuring that his captors have complied with provisions of the law when he has no control over their activities. By placing the burden of insuring compliance on the two states involved, the defendant is less likely to become 'the victim of their contributory inaction.' People v. Esposito, 37 Misc.2d 386, 201 N.Y.S.2d 83, 90 (Queens County Ct. 1960).
An examination of the authorities in the other jurisdictions which have considered analogous situations presented under similar statutes convinces us of the soundness of this decision.
The Maryland Court of Appeals in State v. Barnes, 273 Md. 195, 328 A.2d 737 (Ct.App.1974), reviewed the purposes of the Interstate Compact on Detainers Act:
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