Straley v. Utah Bd. of Pardons

• Decision Date: 28 September 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-4170.,08-4170.
• Citation: 582 F.3d 1208
• Parties: Robert Dale STRALEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UTAH BOARD OF PARDONS, and Clint Friel, Warden, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

582 F.3d 1208

Robert Dale STRALEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UTAH BOARD OF PARDONS, and Clint Friel, Warden, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 08-4170.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

September 28, 2009.

Wade J. Skalsky, Submitted on the briefs, Liberty Bell Law Group, Burbank, CA, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Brent A. Burnett, Utah Attorney General's Office, Salt Lake City, UT, for Respondents-Appellees.

Before TACHA, TYMKOVICH, and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

Robert D. Straley, a Utah state prisoner, brings this pro se 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition challenging the constitutionality of Utah's indeterminate sentencing scheme.¹ He claims Utah's statutory sentencing framework, whereby a parole board determines the actual time an offender serves in prison, violates his federal due process and equal protection rights. The district court dismissed Straley's petition, finding he had failed to raise a cognizable claim for relief. We granted a certificate of appealability.

For substantially the same reasons as the district court outlined in its opinion, we DENY Straley's habeas petition.

I. Background

In August 1993, Straley was sentenced to two one-to-fifteen-year sentences, to be served concurrently, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a child. Straley's prison sentence, however, was stayed and he was placed on probation.

After violating the terms of his probation in 1996, Straley was sent to prison. Subsequently, on four separate occasions between January 2002 and August 2006, Straley was released from prison on parole. Without fail, though, Straley would violate the terms of his parole and return to prison. He is currently serving the remainder of his fifteen-year sentence in a Utah prison after his most recent parole revocation.

In 2005, Straley filed a petition in Utah state court challenging Utah's indeterminate sentencing statutes. He argued the Utah Board of Pardon's (Board) authority to set a release date within Utah's indeterminate sentencing scheme violated his federal due process and equal protection rights, Utah separation of powers principles, as well as his right to a speedy trial. The state court denied relief.

Subsequently, in August 2007, Straley filed this § 2241 habeas petition in Utah federal court, raising the same arguments challenging the manner and execution of his sentence under Utah's statutory sentencing framework. The district court dismissed the petition after finding "there is no federal constitutional or inherent right of a convicted person to be released before the expiration of a valid sentence—in this case, a span extending to fifteen years in prison." R., Doc. 56 at 2-3. First, the court determined "the Utah parole statute [does not] create a liberty interest entitling prisoners to federal constitutional protection." Id. at 3. Second, as to Straley's challenge to Utah's indeterminate sentencing scheme, the court held the Supreme Court's decision in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), "specified that indeterminate sentencing schemes are constitutional." R., Doc. 56 at 3. Finally, the court concluded:

[T]he history of [Straley's] sentences belies all his arguments. His sentences were initially stayed and he was put on probation. He apparently would have served no time at all had he observed the terms of his probation. This would obviously have been far, far less than the time recommended by "the [Utah] guidelines." After he served about six years of his sentence, he was again given the chance to serve about nine years less than the fifteen years he originally faced. He then chose—four times—to violate his parole terms and extend his prison stay past six years. It was solely his choice to spend longer than five years imprisoned. It is thus disingenuous for [Straley] to accuse [the Board] of lengthening his prison stay by violating the Constitution.

Id.

Straley then brought this appeal. In addition to the arguments he raised before the district court, Straley also contends the district court erred by failing to exclude certain evidence before dismissing the case for failure to state a claim for relief. Because Straley's petition to this court made "a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right," 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2), we granted a certificate of appealability (COA) on only two issues:

(1) Whether Utah's indeterminate sentencing statute, Utah Code Ann. § 77-18-4, violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and

(2) Whether the Utah Board of Pardon's role and discretion under Utah's statutory sentencing scheme is unconstitutional.

II. Analysis

Straley argues Utah Code Ann. § 77-18-4² is unconstitutional for two main reasons. First, he claims the statute violates his due process liberty interests in parole because Utah's indeterminate sentencing scheme fails to ensure a proper check on the Board's discretion in making parole decisions.

Second, he contends his equal protection rights have been violated because similarly-situated offenders have served far less time in prison than he has and the Board's decisions are allegedly rife with religious and racial preferences. Within each of these broader contentions, Straley argues Utah's sentencing framework unconstitutionally imparts the Board with judicial and legislative functions.

Straley makes a third, subsidiary argument that the Board violates federal separation of powers principles.

The district court dismissed Straley's § 2241 motion, finding he had failed to raise any federal constitutional ground for relief. See § 2241(c) ("The writ of habeas corpus shall not extend to a prisoner unless ... He is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States."). Addressing these claims on appeal, we review the legal issues de novo. United States v. Eccleston, 521 F.3d 1249, 1253 (10th Cir.2008). For the reasons discussed below, we agree with the district court and find that Straley fails to raise any federal grounds for relief.

A. Due Process

Straley's first argument is that Utah's indeterminate sentencing scheme implicates his federal due process rights. He focuses on the fact that, in Utah, state sentencing judges have no discretion to impose a particular, individualized sentence and are instead required to sentence a criminal to an indefinite range of years. Relying on the Utah Supreme Court's decision in Foote v. Utah Board of Pardons, 808 P.2d 734, 734-35 (Utah 1991), Straley argues Utah's sentencing process is "legally different [from] traditional parole proceedings." Aplt. Br. at 10. In particular, he claims that because Utah has recognized a state constitutional liberty interest in parole, "the same conclusion must stand under the federal constitution." Id. at 11; see also Neel v. Holden, 886 P.2d 1097, 1101 (Utah 1994) (finding a state constitutional due process interest in both an original parole grant hearing as well as in a new parole hearing proceeding a parole revocation). According to Straley's logic, because such a federal due process interest therefore exists, it must necessarily be violated by (1) the indeterminacy of his sentence, and (2) the Board's discretion to determine his eligibility for parole. These arguments are without merit.

The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." "A liberty interest may arise from the Constitution itself, by reason of guarantees implicit in the word `liberty,' or it may arise from an expectation or interest created by state laws or policies." Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209, 221, 125 S.Ct. 2384, 162 L.Ed.2d 174 (2005) (citations omitted). The extent of the due process protection for prisoners, however, is significantly less than that guaranteed to free persons. Estate of DiMarco v. Wyo. Dep't of Corr., Div. of Prisons, 473 F.3d 1334, 1339 (10th Cir. 2007) (citing Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 555-57, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974)). A state's parole statute may create a liberty interest only when the statute's language and application sufficiently limits the discretion of a parole board. See Bd. of Pardons v. Allen, 482 U.S. 369, 381, 107 S.Ct. 2415, 96 L.Ed.2d 303 (1987) (determining a Montana parole statute's use of mandatory language created a liberty interest in the expectancy of parole); Jago v. Van Curen, 454 U.S. 14, 20-21, 102 S.Ct. 31, 70 L.Ed.2d 13 (1981) (finding Ohio statute did not create a liberty interest in the expectancy of parole because parole decision was discretionary).

We have previously upheld Utah's sentencing scheme against constitutional challenge. By way of background:

Utah has a sentencing system in which the trial judge is required to impose the statutorily prescribed range of years and then the Board of Pardons decides the length of time a person is confined. The board relies on [the state] sentencing guidelines to estimate the proper length of sentence under the circumstances and to establish an original parole release date, much like a sentencing judge in the federal system. The Utah Constitution grants due process protection for the original parole grant hearing at which the board determines the predicted terms of incarceration.

Malek v. Haun, 26 F.3d 1013, 1016 (10th Cir.1994) (internal citations omitted). But in considering this procedure in Malek, we held that while a prisoner's challenge to the Board's parole determination may allege "a violation of the Utah Constitution, a violation of state law alone does not give rise to a federal cause of action." Id.

Rather, relying on the Supreme Court decision in Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U.S. 1, 7, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979), we found a federal liberty interest in parole only arises when a prisoner has a legitimate claim of entitlement to it. Malek, 26 F.3d...