U.S. v. Lawson

• Citation: 736 F.2d 835
• Decision Date: 31 May 1984
• Docket Number: No. 989,D,989
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. David LAWSON, Defendant-Appellee. ocket 83-1429.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

Page 835

736 F.2d 835

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. David LAWSON, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 989, Docket 83-1429.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 27, 1984.

Decided May 31, 1984.

Kathleen M. Mehltretter, Asst. U.S. Atty., Buffalo, N.Y. (Salvatore R. Martoche, U.S. Atty., W.D.N.Y., Buffalo, N.Y., on the brief), for appellant.

Patrick J. Quinlivan, Buffalo, N.Y. (Kevin M. Dillon, Buffalo, N.Y., on the brief), for defendant-appellee.

Before KAUFMAN, KEARSE and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.

KEARSE, Circuit Judge:

The United States appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, John T. Elfvin, Judge, dismissing the indictment against defendant David Lawson on the ground that, by transferring Lawson--then a state prisoner--back and forth between state and federal custody numerous times before Lawson was tried on federal charges, the government violated Lawson's rights under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act ("IAD"), 18 U.S.C. App. pp. 545-48 (1982). The government concedes that the retransfers to state custody violated the IAD, but it argues that Lawson waived his right to assert such a claim. The district court, in a thorough opinion dated April 29, 1983 ("D. Ct. Opinion"), ruled that since Lawson had not "knowingly and intelligently" relinquished his rights, there had been no waiver. Although we apply a different standard, we agree that there was no waiver and we affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

In May 1980, Lawson was indicted on three counts of bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2113(a), (b), and (d) (1976). At the time, Lawson was serving a sentence in a New York State prison on a state robbery conviction, and on June 2, the government filed a detainer against him. Thereafter, Lawson was transferred to federal custody seven times, and returned to state custody each time, before he was brought to trial on the federal bank robbery charges.

Following this shuttling, Lawson was tried and convicted in the district court. He successfully appealed his conviction, however, and his case was remanded for a new trial. See United States v. Lawson, 683 F.2d 688 (2d Cir.1982). Prior to his new trial, Lawson moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground, asserted for the first time, that the earlier transfers of custody had violated his rights under Article IV(e) of the IAD. Article IV(e) provides that once a prisoner is transferred to a jurisdiction that has filed both a detainer and a written request for temporary custody, if he is not tried in the new jurisdiction prior to his return to the original jurisdiction, the charges underlying the detainer must be dismissed:

If trial is not had on any indictment, information, or complaint ... [underlying the detainer] prior to the prisoner's being returned to the original place of imprisonment ..., such indictment, information, or complaint shall not be of any further force or effect, and the court shall enter an order dismissing the same with prejudice.

18 U.S.C. App. p. 546. The government argued, inter alia, that Lawson had waived his IAD rights either (1) by failing to assert them prior to his first trial or on appeal, or (2) by having requested to be returned to state custody after his transfers to federal custody.

After finding that Article IV(e) had been violated, the district court ruled, for the reasons discussed in Part II.A. of this opinion, that Lawson's IAD rights had not been waived for failure to file a motion at an earlier time. Then, analyzing certain of this Court's decisions as requiring application of the constitutional standard of waiver set forth in Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938), the court considered whether there had been a knowing and intelligent waiver, and found there had not. The court found that although some of Lawson's transfers to federal custody had resulted from his numerous requests for assignment of new counsel to represent him, on no occasion did Lawson ask to be returned to state custody. The court pointed out that although the government had had ample time to augment the record, it had presented no evidence that Lawson ever instigated his return to state custody or even knew of his rights under the IAD. Pursuant to the mandate of Article IV(e), therefore, the court dismissed the indictment.

This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

The government concedes that Article IV(e) of the IAD was violated in this case, and hence the only issues on this appeal are (1) whether Lawson's failure to raise his IAD claim prior to his first trial or on appeal bars him from raising the claim following the remand for a new trial, and (2) if not, whether Lawson waived his IAD claim by reason of his actions relating to his transfers between jurisdictions before his first trial began. We conclude that both questions are properly answered in the negative.

A. The Effect of the Order for a New Trial

The first question need not detain us long--notwithstanding the requirement of Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b) that motions challenging the institution of the prosecution, on a basis other than an absence of the court's jurisdiction or the failure of the indictment to charge an offense, must be made before trial, and the provision of Rule 12(f) that the failure to make prior to trial a motion that is required to be made prior to trial constitutes waiver. Had there been no reversal of Lawson's conviction, the effect of these rules would have been to bar any assertion of his IAD rights. It has long been established, however, that when a judgment has been reversed and the case remanded for a new trial, the effect is to nullify the judgment entirely and place the parties in the position of no trial having taken place. In United States v. Ayres, 76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 608, 19 L.Ed. 625 (1869), in dismissing an appeal from a judgment that had been followed by an order for a new trial, the Supreme Court stated as follows:

[I]t is quite clear, that the order granting the new trial has the effect of vacating the former judgment, and to render it null and void, and the parties are left in the same situation as if no trial had ever taken place in the cause. This is the legal effect of the new trial by a court competent to grant it.

Id. at 610, 19 L.Ed. 625.

In accordance with this principle, after a conviction has been reversed on appeal and the case remanded for a new trial, the government has been permitted to add to the original indictment, see United States v. Ragano, 520 F.2d 1191, 1199 (5th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 427 U.S. 905, 96 S.Ct. 3192, 49 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1976), and to use evidence not offered at the first trial, see United States v. Paroutian, 319 F.2d 661, 663 (2d Cir.1963); and a defendant has been permitted to raise issues not raised at the first trial, see United States v. Cox, 432 F.2d 1326, 1327 (D.C.Cir.1970), and to make a new pretrial motion to suppress evidence, see United States v. Romano, 241 F.Supp. 933, 936 (D.Me.1965), vacated on other grounds, 356 F.2d 310 (1st Cir.1966).

In the present case, Lawson's conviction was reversed by this Court and the matter was remanded for a new trial. Since the effect of this decision was to place "the parties ... in the same situation as if no trial had ever taken place," United States v. Ayres, supra, 76 U.S. (9 Wall.) at 610,any motion made by Lawson on remand prior to the retrial must be treated as a motion prior to trial. Since his motion to dismiss on IAD grounds was made prior to his retrial, it was timely under Rule 12.

B. The Standard for Waiver of an IAD Right

We turn, therefore, to the matter of whether Lawson had waived his right to assert IAD violations by his conduct during the period in which he was transferred back and forth between state and federal custody. The questions are the proper standard to be applied in determining whether a waiver occurred and, under that standard, whether Lawson waived his IAD rights.

As the district court recognized, the rights at issue here are statutory rights, not rights granted by the Constitution, and " '[a]lmost without exception, the requirement of a knowing and intelligent waiver has been applied only to those rights which the Constitution guarantees to a criminal defendant in order to preserve a fair trial.' " D.Ct. Opinion at 17 (quoting Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 237, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2052, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973)). Accordingly most of the courts of appeals that have considered the question of waiver under the IAD have concluded that a defendant need not know his or her rights under the statute in order to waive its protections. See, e.g., United States v. Odom, 674 F.2d 228, 230 (4th Cir.), cert denied, 457 U.S. 1125, 102 S.Ct. 2946, 75 L.Ed.2d 1341 (1982); United States v. Black, 609 F.2d 1330, 1334 (9th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 847, 101 S.Ct. 132, 66 L.Ed.2d 56 (1980); Gray v. Benson, 608 F.2d 825, 826-27 (10th Cir.1979); United States v. Eaddy, 595 F.2d 341, 344 (6th Cir.1979); Camp v. United States, 587 F.2d 397, 400 (8th Cir.1978).

In concluding that the standard applied in this Circuit was that a waiver of an IAD right must be knowing and intelligent to be effective, the district court looked to our decisions in United States v. Mauro, 544 F.2d 588 (2d Cir.1976) ("Mauro" ), rev'd on other grounds, 436 U.S. 340, 98 S.Ct. 1834, 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978); United States v. Ford, 550 F.2d 732 (2d Cir.1977), aff'd sub nom. United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340, 98 S.Ct. 1834, 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978); and United States v. Cyphers, 556 F.2d 630 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 972, 97 S.Ct. 2937, 53 L.Ed.2d 1070 (1977). While there is dictum in our opinion in Mauro to support the conclusion that the constitutional standard of waiver was applied in that case, we do not believe that conclusion is compelled and we do not believe the constitutional standard is the proper one.

In Mauro, the defendants had...