Renn v. Utah State Bd. of Pardons

Decision Date12 October 1995
Docket NumberNo. 930578,930578
PartiesDavid RENN, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. UTAH STATE BOARD OF PARDONS, Defendant and Petitioner.
CourtUtah Supreme Court

Anthony B. Quinn, Mary Anne Q. Wood, Larry S. Jenkins, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.

Jan Graham, Atty. Gen., James H. Beadles, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, for defendant.

ON CERTIORARI TO THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STEWART, Associate Chief Justice:

This case is here on a writ of certiorari to review the decision of the Utah Court of Appeals in Renn v. Utah State Board of Pardons, 862 P.2d 1378 (Utah Ct.App.1993). The petitioner, the Utah State Board of Pardons (the "Board"), argues that the Court of Appeals erred in ruling that David Renn's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was not barred by the ninety-day statute of limitations for filing petitions for writs of habeas corpus in Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-31.1. The Court of Appeals had earlier held § 78-12-31.1 unconstitutional in Currier v. Holden, 862 P.2d 1357 (Utah Ct.App.1993), cert. denied sub nom. McClellan v. Holden, 870 P.2d 957 (Utah 1994). The Court of Appeals reversed the district court's dismissal of Renn's petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the writ was barred by the statute of limitations and remanded for a hearing on the merits.

I. FACTS

In 1990, Renn was convicted of manslaughter, a second degree felony, and sentenced to serve an indefinite term of one to fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. On April 24, 1991, he appeared before the Board for an original parole grant hearing. After questioning Renn and hearing testimony from a representative of the victim's family, the Board stated that it needed more information about Renn before it could grant Renn a parole date. The Board ordered a psychological evaluation of Renn and issued an interim decision setting a parole rehearing for July 1995. The Board issued a final decision on April 30, 1991, that postponed Renn's parole rehearing until July 1998.

On February 13, 1992, Renn filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the district court under Rule 65B(c) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. He alleged that the Board acted arbitrarily and with "no consistency and no logical reason" (1) in selecting a parole rehearing date that exceeded the parole date called for by the Board's guidelines for manslaughter; (2) in increasing the time to his parole rehearing date by three years; and (3) in failing to explain its reasons for modifying its interim decision. The trial court dismissed Renn's petition, ruling that it was barred by the three-month statute of limitations for the filing of petitions for writs of habeas corpus. Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-31.1. 1 On the basis of its prior ruling in Currier v. Holden, 862 P.2d 1357 (Utah Ct.App.1993), which held § 78-12-31.1 unconstitutional under article I, section 11 of the Utah Constitution, the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's ruling and remanded for decision of the issues raised in Renn's petition.

In this Court, the Board argues that the Court of Appeals erred in applying the law established in Currier to the facts of this case and that the panel of the Court of Appeals should have addressed the constitutionality of the statute of limitations anew. The Board argues that Currier was not binding on the panel of the Court of Appeals that decided this case on the theory that decisions of the Court of Appeals holding a statute unconstitutional are not binding on other panels of the Court of Appeals. In essence, the Board's position is that only this Court has the authority to issue rulings that hold a statute unconstitutional and bind the Court of Appeals and all lower courts, and that a decision of a panel of the Court of Appeals with respect to the constitutionality of a statute is similar to a decision of a district court, which is not binding precedent on other district courts.

II. ARTICLE VIII JUDICIAL POWER AND THE COURT OF APPEALS

The Constitution of the State of Utah declares, "The judicial power of the state shall be vested in a supreme court, in a trial court of general jurisdiction known as the district court, and in such other courts as the Legislature by statute may establish." Utah Const. art. VIII, § 1. It has long been held that the judicial power includes the authority to decide whether a statute is constitutional. Block v. Schwartz, 27 Utah 387, 392, 76 P. 22, 23 (1904); see State ex rel. University of Utah v. Candland, 36 Utah 406, 419, 104 P. 285, 290 (1909); State ex rel. Richards v. Armstrong, 17 Utah 166, 174, 53 P. 981, 983 (1898). The Legislature implicitly recognized the scope of the term "judicial power" in enacting Utah Code Ann. § 78-2-2(3)(g), which grants the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over "a final judgment or decree of any court of record holding a statute ... unconstitutional."

The Court of Appeals was established by statute in 1986. 1986 Utah Laws ch. 47, §§ 44-48; see Utah Code Ann. § 78-2a-1 (1992). Under article VIII, section 1, the Court of Appeals is vested with judicial power to decide cases that fall within that court's jurisdiction. Because the Court of Appeals exercises article VIII judicial power, that court has the power to rule on the constitutionality of statutes.

The Court of Appeals has state-wide jurisdiction, and its rulings, except to the extent they may conflict with rulings of this Court, are binding state-wide, whether those rulings are constitutionally based or not. Under current statutes, the Court of Appeals can act only in panels. Utah Code Ann. § 78-2a-2(2). Because that court adjudicates cases in three-judge panels, it follows that the rulings of a panel of the court also apply state-wide. The panel that held § 78-12-31.1 unconstitutional in Currier v. Holden, 862 P.2d 1357 (Utah Ct.App.1993), did so pursuant to the "judicial power of the state" which the Legislature had conferred on the Court of Appeals pursuant to the power the Legislature has under Article VIII, section 1.

The Board does not contend that the panel which decided Currier had no authority whatsoever to declare a statute unconstitutional, but rather that the decision of that panel is not binding on other panels of that court or on district courts. To adopt that view would be to disregard the nature of the Court of Appeals' jurisdiction, the manner in which it must act, and the necessity for uniformity and predictability in the law established by the panels of the Court of Appeals. Indeed, we have held that a decision of a panel of the Court of Appeals is entitled to the force of stare decisis in subsequent cases decided by other panels of the court. State v. Thurman, 846 P.2d 1256, 1269 (Utah 1993); State v. Menzies, 889 P.2d 393, 398-99 (Utah 1994). Thus, a rule of law pronounced by a panel governs all later cases involving the same legal issues decided by other panels of that court and all courts of lower rank. Thurman, 846 P.2d at 1269. In sum, the holding of the Court of Appeals in Currier v. Holden, 862 P.2d 1357, that the three-month statute of limitations for habeas corpus petitions is unconstitutional had the binding effect of stare decisis on other panels of the Court of Appeals, including the panel that decided the instant case and all lower courts.

In addition, the Board argues that the facts alleged in Renn's petition make the instant case distinguishable from the facts decided in Currier. Renn's petition in the district court was for post-conviction relief in the nature of a writ of habeas corpus, pursuant to Rule 65B(b) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. We are not bound, however, by Renn's characterization of his petition for an extraordinary writ, or even the characterization of the Court of Appeals. We will look to the substance of the action and the nature of the relief sought in determining the true nature of the extraordinary relief requested. In short, the name a party or a court applies to an action for an extraordinary writ is not binding if the true nature of the petition is other than the name applied to it.

In its early history, a writ of habeas corpus was classically used to challenge the lawfulness of a physical restraint under which a person was held or the jurisdiction and sentence of a court that convicted a person. See Hurst v. Cook, 777 P.2d 1029, 1034 (Utah 1989); Ziegler v. Miliken, 583 P.2d 1175, 1176 (Utah 1978). Later, the scope of the writ was expanded to provide a post-conviction remedy in unusual circumstances to determine whether a person was convicted in violation of principles of fundamental fairness 2 or whether the sentence imposed is void. Thompson v. Harris, 106 Utah 32, 144 P.2d 761 (1943), cert. denied, 324 U.S. 845, 65 S.Ct. 676, 89 L.Ed. 1406 (1945); Hurst, 777 P.2d at 1034. In addition, a writ of habeas corpus may be used to challenge cruel or oppressive conditions of imprisonment. Wickham v. Fisher, 629 P.2d 896 (Utah 1981).

Here, Renn does not challenge the legality of his detention, the lawfulness of the court-imposed sentence, or the conditions of his confinement. Rather, Renn seeks review of the Board's decision to postpone the hearing at which his parole release date is set. He alleges that the Board acted with "no consistency and no logical reason" and failed to explain its reasons for extending his rehearing date an additional three years. If he is entitled, the relief he seeks is akin to the kind of relief that is available by the extraordinary writs of certiorari or mandamus rather than by habeas corpus.

The common law writ of certiorari was used when there was no adequate remedy at law, such as a direct statutory appeal, to bring the record of the proceedings of an inferior tribunal before a superior court to determine from the record whether the inferior tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction or failed to proceed in accordance with law. Boggess v. Morris, 635 P.2d 39, 42 (Utah 1981) (citing Gilbert v. Board of Police & Fire Comm'rs,...

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