Wellman v. State of Me.

• Decision Date: 06 January 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-1944,91-1944
• Citation: 962 F.2d 70
• Parties: Bruce D. WELLMAN, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE OF MAINE, Respondent, Appellee. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 70

962 F.2d 70

Bruce D. WELLMAN, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE OF MAINE, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 91-1944.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard Jan. 6, 1992.

Decided Feb. 26, 1992.

David P. Silk with whom Curtis Thaxter Stevens Broder & Micoleau was on brief, Portland, Me., for petitioner, appellant.

Joseph A. Wannemacher, Asst. Atty. Gen., Crim. Div., with whom Michael E. Carpenter, Atty. Gen., was on brief, for respondent, appellee.

Before BREYER, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Bruce D. Wellman appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for habeas corpus. The main issue is whether the State of Maine violated petitioner's constitutional rights by eliminating pretrial detention time as a credit against his sentence which it had previously granted him. For the reasons that follow, we find that there was no constitutional violation and affirm the judgment below.

I. THE FACTS

Petitioner was indicted in Cumberland County, Maine, on twenty-four counts of robbery, burglary, and theft. He was also indicted on ten counts of robbery, burglary, and theft in Knox, Lincoln, and Sagadahoc counties. At the time of his indictment, petitioner was serving a sentence in New Hampshire for being an accomplice to burglary. He was brought from New Hampshire to Maine and confined in the Cumberland County jail from May 23, 1985, to November 20, 1986, pending disposition of the Maine indictments. The confinement in the Cumberland County jail was in service of the New Hampshire sentence, pursuant to the Interstate Compact on Detainers, Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 34-A, §§ 9601-9609 (West 1988). During his pretrial detention After a mistrial was declared in the trial of some of the counts, petitioner entered into a plea agreement covering the thirty-four counts of burglary, theft, and robbery. He pled guilty to all counts on September 26, 1986. Petitioner was sentenced on April 8, 1987, to twenty years imprisonment with all but nine years suspended and three years probation. Prior to the sentencing, the Cumberland County District Attorney provided the sentencing judge with a formal notice stating that petitioner had been detained in Maine under the Interstate Compact on Detainers for 686 days. This reflected the period from May 23, 1985, the date of petitioner's removal from New Hampshire to Maine, to the date of sentencing, April 8, 1987. At the sentencing petitioner was given a pretrial detention credit for the full 686 days.

                in Maine, petitioner's New Hampshire sentence was reduced as a result of a successful appeal and was terminated on November 20, 1986.   Petitioner remained incarcerated in Maine on the pending Maine charges
                

After petitioner had commenced a post-conviction challenge to the sentence, ¹ the Attorney General for Maine realized that under Maine law petitioner was not entitled to any pretrial detention credit for time served on his New Hampshire sentence. Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 17-A, § 1253(2) (West 1991). The Attorney General informed the Maine State Prison Classification Department of the pertinent statute and directed that it recalculate petitioner's sentence. As a result, petitioner's release date was set back 546 days, the period from his removal to Maine, May 23, 1985, to the end of his New Hampshire sentence, November 20, 1986. Petitioner was credited with the 140 pretrial detention days on the Maine charges.

Petitioner challenges the reduction in pretrial detention credits on the grounds that Maine breached its plea agreement with him and that his guilty pleas were thus rendered involuntary. Petitioner also attacks his sentence on the ground that Maine had misinformed him about the particulars of a plea agreement between the state and another defendant, John Bedard, who became one of the key prosecution witnesses.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Petitioner mounted a post-conviction challenge to the elimination of 546 days of detention time credit in the Maine Superior Court. In April of 1990 he was granted leave to withdraw his guilty plea by the Superior Court of Maine for Cumberland County. The court found that while petitioner had not proven "that an agreement [regarding time spent in pretrial detention] had been reached but not carried out," he had been convincing that "he and his lead counsel expected that he [would] get the full 686 days of credit." Based upon this "unrealized expectation" the court found that the petitioner's "pleas were not voluntary under either a subjective or objective test." The issue involving Bedard's plea agreement was not reached.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine reversed. Wellman v. State of Maine, 588 A.2d 1178 (Me.1991). It upheld the finding of the superior court that there had been no breach of a plea agreement, stating that "credit for time served was not an explicit part of the plea agreement." Id. at 1181. Relying on United States v. Bouthot, 878 F.2d 1506, 1511-12 (1st Cir.1989), it drew a distinction between the direct and collateral consequences of a guilty plea:

M.R.Crim.P. 11 requires the court, prior to acceptance of a guilty plea, to insure that the plea is made knowingly, that the plea is voluntary and that there is a factual basis for the charge. The court fully complied with the requirements of Rule 11 at the time Wellman entered his guilty pleas. The court informed Wellman of the direct sentencing consequences of his pleas and later imposed a sentence consistent with the plea agreement. There is no requirement under Rule 11 that the court inform the defendant of each and every collateral consequence Id. at 1180-81 (footnote omitted). The court held:

of his plea and the resulting sentence, such as where he is to be incarcerated, what good time credits he may be entitled to earn, or to what pretrial detention credit he may be entitled.

The Superior Court erred in concluding that Wellman's otherwise voluntary pleas were made involuntary by his subjective misunderstanding as to his entitlement to credit for pretrial detention in Maine, when that entitlement was not part of the plea agreement and was not induced by misrepresentation.

Id. at 1181.

Petitioner then brought this petition for habeas corpus. The district court, in a well-reasoned opinion, denied the petition. 769 F.Supp. 21 (1991). It found that the record supported the conclusion of the superior court, affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court, "that Petitioner did not satisfy his burden of establishing that the plea agreement, or an agreement collateral to the plea agreement, bound the state to provide Petitioner with a specific number of credited days." Id. at 23. We agree.

The district court, however, parted company with the Maine court on the direct versus collateral consequences of a guilty plea. It found that this distinction has little relevance "when the state has provided a defendant with inaccurate information." Id. The district court pointed out that misinformation "rising to the level of a misrepresentation may be a constitutional infirmity even when it relates to a collateral consequence of the defendant's guilty plea." Id. The district court found that "this case involves misinformation provided by the state rather than the absence of collateral information." Id. at 23-24. The court then went on to rule that petitioner, in order to prevail, had to show that he had suffered prejudice as a result of the state's providing incorrect information but had failed to do so. Id. at 24. The district court, for the same reason--lack of prejudice--dismissed petitioner's second claim based on the state's failure to inform him of the details of Bedard's plea agreement.

III. ANALYSIS

A plea is immune from collateral attack in an action for habeas corpus if it is both counseled and voluntary. Mabry v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 504, 508, 104 S.Ct. 2543, 2546, 81 L.Ed.2d 437 (1984) (footnote omitted). Petitioner makes no claim that he was without counsel or that he was not counseled competently before deciding to plead guilty. Instead, petitioner rests his case entirely upon the contention that his plea was rendered involuntary by the retraction of the previously awarded 546 days of credit against his sentence.

The voluntariness of a guilty plea "for purposes of the Federal Constitution is a question of federal law." Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 431, 103 S.Ct. 843, 849, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983). A state court's factual findings enjoy a presumption of correctness. Id. at 431-32, 103 S.Ct. at 849; Nelson v. Callahan, 721 F.2d 397, 399 (1st Cir.1983) (citing Sumner v. Mata, 455 U.S. 591, 591-92, 102 S.Ct. 1303, 1303-04, 71 L.Ed.2d 480 (1982)). A mixed question of fact and law, like a question of law, is given de novo review on appeal. Sumner, 455 U.S. at 597, 102 S.Ct. at 1306 ("Federal court may give different weight to the facts as found by the state court and...