Reeder v. State

• Decision Date: 19 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. 1999-CA-01869-SCT.,1999-CA-01869-SCT.
• Citation: 783 So.2d 711
• Parties: Alan Charles REEDER v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

783 So.2d 711

Alan Charles REEDER v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1999-CA-01869-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 19, 2001.

Keith Roberts, Pascagoula, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellee.

Before McRAE, P.J., DIAZ and EASLEY, JJ.

DIAZ, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. On July 19, 1996, Alan Charles Reeder (Reeder) pled guilty to armed robbery and kidnapping. Accordingly, the Jackson County Circuit Court sentenced Reeder to a term of ten years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) without the possibility of parole for armed robbery and to a term of ten years imprisonment for kidnapping, to run concurrently with the sentence imposed for armed robbery. On July 15, 1999, Reeder filed a petition seeking relief under the Uniform Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act (the Act), Miss. Code Ann. §§ 99-39-1 to 119 (2000), alleging that he entered his guilty plea involuntarily. The circuit court entered an order on October 12, 1999, granting the State's motion for summary judgment. Reeder appeals that order contending (1) that he was denied due process by the trial court's failure to follow the procedural mandates of Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-11 (2000), relying on M.R.C.P. 56 instead; and (2) alternatively, that the trial court abused its discretion in granting the summary judgment.

FACTS

¶ 2. On February 2, 1996, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Alan Charles Reeder, Ernest Havier Espinoza, Monique Bianca Woods and Roosevelt Lewis, Jr., for the crimes of armed robbery, kidnapping, and burglary of an inhabited dwelling. Reeder pled guilty to armed robbery and kidnapping, and the State agreed to nol pros the burglary charge. At the hearing on his petition to enter a guilty plea, Reeder admitted that on November 24, 1995, he, along with Espinoza, Woods and Lewis, entered the home of Deborah Ann Harloe, demanding approximately twenty pounds of marijuana which they suspected Harloe possessed. After Harloe informed them that the marijuana was stored at a different location, Lewis and Reeder accompanied her to retrieve it. Lewis and Reeder were unable to gain access to the home where Harloe stored the marijuana because it was equipped with an alarm. By the time they returned to Harloe's house, someone had called the police. Lewis and Reeder fled but were soon arrested.

¶ 3. Upon entry of his guilty plea, the Jackson County Circuit Court sentenced Reeder to a term of ten years in the custody of the MDOC without the possibility of parole for armed robbery and ten years imprisonment for kidnapping to run concurrently with the armed robbery sentence.

¶ 4. On July 15, 1999, Reeder filed a petition seeking relief under the Act, alleging he entered his guilty plea involuntarily. Three days prior to the hearing scheduled for October 15, 1999, the State filed a motion for summary judgment pursuant to M.R.C.P. 56, contending that Reeder's claims were meritless as evidenced by a review of the transcript from the hearing on his guilty plea. The circuit court entered an order granting the motion. It is this order from which Reeder appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 5. "When reviewing a lower court's decision to deny a petition for postconviction relief this Court will not disturb the trial court's factual findings unless they are found to be clearly erroneous. However, where questions of law are raised the applicable standard of review is de novo." Pickett v. State, 751 So.2d 1031, 1032 (Miss.1999).

DISCUSSION

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT DENIED REEDER DUE PROCESS BY FAILING TO FOLLOW THE PROCEDURAL MANDATES OF MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-39-11 AND INSTEAD PROCEEDING UNDER M.R.C.P. 56.

¶ 6. Reeder claims that the trial court denied him due process by failing to comply with the plain language of the Act. He maintains that under Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-11, "the trial court was required to promptly dismiss or order the State to answer or file some other pleading, and then cause the matter to be set for an evidentiary hearing." He notes that the trial court granted summary judgment under M.R.C.P. 56 rather than ordering the State to file an answer. Reeder argues that, in post conviction matters, the trial court is limited to the powers granted it under §§ 99-39-11 and 99-39-19 and may not proceed under M.R.C.P. 56.

¶ 7. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-11 (2000) sets out the proper procedure for summary dismissal of a petition seeking postconviction relief. The trial judge must promptly examine "the original motion, together with all the files, records, transcripts and correspondence relating to the judgment under attack." Id. If, after conducting such an examination, "it plainly appears from the face of the motion, any annexed exhibits and the prior proceedings in the case that the movant is not entitled to any relief ... the judge may make an order for its dismissal and cause the prisoner to be notified." Id. Should the trial judge choose not to dismiss the petition, he "shall order the state to file an answer or other pleading within the period of time fixed by the court or to take such other action as the judge deems appropriate." Id.

¶ 8. If the trial judge goes beyond the materials enumerated in § 99-39-11 and receives affidavits or other evidence from the State, he may enter summary judgment against the petitioner under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-19 (2000). It provides "[i]f the motion is not dismissed at a previous stage of the proceeding, the judge, after the answer is filed and discovery, if any, is completed, shall, upon a review of the record, determine whether an evidentiary hearing is required. If it appears that an evidentiary hearing is not required, the judge shall make such disposition of the motion as justice shall require." Id. Finally, "[t]he court may grant a motion by either party for summary judgment when it appears from the record that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Id. ¶ 9. Three days before the scheduled evidentiary hearing, the State filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in which it refuted Reeder's allegations concerning the voluntariness of his guilty plea. The State moved "that upon review and study of the petition of Alan Charles Reeder and the exhibits that this court will enter an order dismissing the petition for post conviction relief without argument or further testimony." The trial court entered an order granting the State's motion, finding that "[o]n Motion of the State of Mississippi for Summary Judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure and having reviewed that motion and the motion for Post Conviction Relief filed by the defendant, Alan Charles Reeder, the undersigned is of the opinion that the Summary Judgment should be and it is hereby granted in favor of the State of Mississippi and against the defendant, Alan Charles Reeder."

¶ 10. The central issue in this case is the proper characterization of the trial court's grant of summary judgment against Reeder. The State claims that though the trial judge purported to enter summary judgment against Reeder, in actuality, she summarily dismissed Reeder's petition pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-11. It contends, "[t]he Judge followed the requirements of the appropriate postconviction relief statute, Section 99-39-11, M.C.A., which was not the civil summary judgment rule. This is confusing because the State moved for a summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56. The trial judge did, however, apply the most appropriate statute, despite reciting that she was granting summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56...."

¶ 11. Reeder's contentions regarding the characterization of the order granting summary judgment are less clear. It appears that he wishes this Court hold that a trial court may never grant summary judgment under M.R.C.P. 56 against a petitioner for post-conviction relief. Alternatively, he contends that if a trial court may enter summary judgment pursuant to M.R.C.P. 56, the trial judge in the instant case did not follow the procedural mandates of §§ 99-39-11 and 99-39-19 or those contained within M.R.C.P. 56 itself.

¶ 12. A review of the record reveals the trial court likely acted properly and in accordance with § 99-39-19 in granting a summary dismissal. We understand § 99-39-19 as authorizing the use of the summary judgment procedure found in M.R.C.P. 56. Milam v. State, 578 So.2d 272, 273 (Miss.1991). In that holding, we recognized that the "Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure afford a regimen of limited applicability and governance of post-conviction proceedings such as this, that is, the Rules supplement the Mississippi Uniform Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act, Miss.Code Ann. §§ 99-39-1, et seq. (2000) and are available except where the act provides otherwise." Id. (citing Neal v. State, 525 So.2d 1279, 1280-81 (Miss.1987) (PCR Act's pleadings requirements supplement those in MRCP)). See also Billiot v. State, 515 So.2d 1234, 1236-37 (Miss. 1987)

(same). Therefore, in fact, the trial court summarily dismissed the petition pursuant to § 99-39-19.

¶ 13. Reeder next contends that the trial court erred in failing to require the State to file an answer. Section 99-39-11 provides that if the trial court does not summarily dismiss the petition, "the judge shall order the state to file an answer or other pleading within the period of time fixed by the court or to take such other action as the judge deems appropriate." In the present case, there is no evidence that the trial court ordered the State to take any action whatsoever. ¶ 14. We addressed this issue in Holt v. State, 650 So.2d 1267, 1271 (Miss.1994). In that case, an evidentiary hearing was conducted at which the petitioner and several witnesses appeared and testified. Id. at 1269. The State did not file an answer to Holt's petition, though the current assistant district attorney, who represented Holt...