Wright v. Bourbeau, 2598

• Decision Date: 16 April 1985
• Docket Number: No. 2598,2598
• Citation: 3 Conn.App. 512,490 A.2d 522
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: Ronnie WRIGHT v. David BOURBEAU et al.

Page 522

490 A.2d 522

3 Conn.App. 512

Ronnie WRIGHT v. David BOURBEAU et al.

No. 2598.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued Nov. 7, 1984.

Decided April 16, 1985.

Thomas J. Ullmann, Asst. Public Defender, with whom, on brief, was Douglas Nash, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant (plaintiff).

Julia D. Dewey, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on brief, was Arnold Markle, State's Atty., for appellees (defendants).

Before DUPONT, C.P.J., and HULL and SPALLONE, JJ.

SPALLONE, Judge.

The plaintiff, Ronnie Wright, was charged in North Carolina with rape, burglary, armed robbery and two counts of breaking and entering. On January 27, 1983, he was arrested in Connecticut on a warrant charging him with being a fugitive from justice in North Carolina. He was incarcerated in lieu of bond and served by the defendant David Bourbeau, a Connecticut state trooper, with a rendition warrant, signed by the governor of Connecticut in response to a request for extradition signed by the governor of North Carolina. The plaintiff thereafter petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the warrant under which he is held for rendition. After a full hearing, the petition was denied and the plaintiff now appeals from that judgment.

The sole issue in this appeal is whether the documents filed in support of the rendition warrant meet the statutory requirements of General Statutes § 54-159. ¹ The plaintiff claims that they do not. We disagree.

General Statutes § 54-159 provides that no demand for extradition shall be recognized by the governor unless in writing and accompanied by certain documents. ² The documents presented with the demand to extradite the plaintiff, and admitted as exhibits at the habeas corpus hearing, included five arrest warrants and one affidavit. Two of the warrants were issued, respectively on September 1, 1982, and September 21, 1982, and the remaining three were issued on October 1, 1982. The affidavit was dated February 7, 1983. The defendant claims that compliance with the provision of General Statutes § 54-159, which allows a requisition warrant to be supported by "a copy of an affidavit made before a magistrate [in the requesting state], together with a copy of any warrant which was issued thereupon," is only possible if the affidavit either predates or is signed contemporaneously with the warrants. A close examination of the warrants and affidavit in this case, as well as the law, leads us to disagree.

The Uniform Criminal Extradition Act codifies the procedure for the interstate extradition of fugitives, which is a right of the states created by the United States constitution. ³ Hill v. Blake, 186 Conn. 404, 407, 441 A.2d 841 (1982). The extradition act provides the procedural mechanism for the summary disposition of extradition cases. Glavin v. Warden, 163 Conn. 394, 395 n. 1, 311 A.2d 86 (1972). "The custodial court may not inquire into the merits of the charge or into any claimed procedural infirmities, constitutional or otherwise, lurking in the prosecution. Michigan v. Doran, [439 U.S. 282, 289, 99 S.Ct. 530, 535, 58 L.Ed.2d 521 (1978) ]; Ross v. Hegstrom, 157 Conn. 403, 409, 254 A.2d 556 (1969); Rosenberg v. Slavin, 122 Conn. 304, 308, 188 A. 272 (1936). Such matters are to be determined by the court in the charging state. Ross v. Hegstrom, supra." Narel v. Liburdi, 185 Conn. 562, 565, 441 A.2d 177 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928, 102 S.Ct. 1974, 72 L.Ed.2d 443 (1982). Once extradition has been granted, a court considering release on habeas corpus examines the following questions: "(a) whether the extradition documents on their face are in order, (b) whether the plaintiff has been charged with a crime in the charging state, (c) whether the plaintiff is the person named in the request for extradition and (d) whether the plaintiff is a fugitive." Wentworth v. Bourbeau, 188 Conn. 364, 368, 449 A.2d 1015 (1982), quoted in Parks v. Bourbeau, 193 Conn. 270, 275, 477 A.2d 636 (1984).

Connecticut courts, in interpreting the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, must do so subject to the provisions of "any and all acts of Congress enacted in pursuance [of the extradition clause in the United States constitution]...." General Statutes § 54-158. ⁴ The federal statute on interstate extradition is 18 U.S.C. § 3182. ⁵ The language of General Statutes § 54-159 differs significantly from that of the federal statute.

General Statutes § 54-159 requires that a demand for extradition be accompanied by "a copy of an affidavit made before a magistrate [in the demanding state], together with a copy of any warrant which was issued thereupon...." The federal statute requires that the demand be accompanied by "an affidavit made before a magistrate of any State or Territory...." The latter does not require a copy of any warrant which may have been issued upon the affidavit. Accordingly, under federal law, extradition may be accomplished solely on the basis of an affidavit.

The courts which have considered whether the more stringent requirement of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act is inconsistent with the federal statute and, if so, which is paramount, have concluded that the federal statute controls. Application of Williams, 76 Idaho 173, 176, 279 P.2d 882 (1955); State ex rel. Sieloff v. Golz, 80 Wis.2d 225, 240, 258 N.W.2d 700 (1977). Although the federal statute prescribes the terms for extradition by states; DeGenna v. Grasso, 413 F.Supp. 427, 430 (D.Conn.1976); People ex rel. Dimas v. Shimp, 83 Ill.App.3d 150, 152, 38 Ill.Dec. 519, 403 N.E.2d 750 (1980); the states may establish ancillary provisions as long as they are consistent with the command of the statute. Giardino v. Bourbeau, 193 Conn. 116, 121 n. 7, 475 A.2d 298 (1984). Our application and interpretation of General Statutes § 54-159 must therefore harmonize with 18 U.S.C. § 3182.

In construing General Statutes § 54-159 in light of any and all acts of Congress in pursuance of the extradition clause, it is clear that a copy of the affidavit is indispensable. It is not clear, however, that the statute requires a copy of a warrant at all. The words "a copy of any warrant which was issued [thereupon]" have been construed to mean that a copy of an arrest warrant need only be included if a warrant was issued based on the affidavit. See People v. Hoy, 225 N.Y.S.2d 412, 415-16, (N.Y.Sup.Ct.1962). 18 U.S.C. § 3182 does not require that the magistrate before whom the affidavit is sworn issue an arrest warrant, and the courts which have considered whether such a warrant must be issued have found no such requirement by implication. Kirkland v. Preston, 385 F.2d 670, 675 (D.C.Cir.1967).

The uniform act was designed to conform to and supplement the federal statute. DeGenna v. Grasso, supra; Glavin v. Warden, 163 Conn. 394, 395 n. 1, 311 A.2d 86 (1972). Under the federal statute, the plaintiff's rendition could be based on the affidavit alone. In the present case, the five warrants which accompanied the affidavit were issued upon information supplied by oral testimony under oath by the complainant, Detective J.M. Stephenson of the Dunn, North Carolina, police department. Each of the warrants states that the magistrate found probable cause to believe that the plaintiff committed the particular offense and that the warrant was "issued upon information furnished under oath by the complainant or complainants listed." (Emphasis added.) The latter statement appears immediately above the issuing magistrate's signature. Stephenson, the complainant named on the warrants, prepared and signed the affidavit of February 7, 1983.

Since individual circumstances surrounding extradition demands are varied and diverse, the mechanical application of fixed and absolute rules is inappropriate if justice is to be achieved in a particular case. See South Dakota v. Brown, 20 Cal.3d 765, 779, 576 P.2d 473, 144 Cal.Rptr. 758 (1978). Although our inquiry in this matter is restrained; Parks v. Bourbeau, supra; it must not be perfunctory.

The requirement in General Statutes § 54-159 that the affidavit be the document upon which the warrants were issued must, in logic, refer to the substantive allegations contained therein. In interpreting statutory language, we assume that a reasonable and rational result was intended. Norwich Land Co. v. Public Utilities Commission, 170 Conn. 1, 4, 363 A.2d 1386 (1975). Under the traditional presumption of regularity with which proceedings of the demanding state are clothed; Michigan v. Doran, supra, 439 U.S. 290, 99 S.Ct. 536; we presume that Stephenson's affidavit reduced to writing the information which he had earlier furnished under oath to the issuing magistrate. Public officials acting officially, are considered to have properly and accurately performed their duty until the contrary appears. Parham v. Warden, 172 Conn. 126, 134, 374 A.2d 137 (1976).

An issue analogous to that now before us was considered in In re Armstrong, 49 N.C.App. 175, 270 S.E.2d 619 (1980), in connection with the provision of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act which allows a demand for extradition to be accompanied "by information supported by affidavit in the state having jurisdiction of the crime." The sole question in that case was "whether the words 'information supported by affidavit' ... require that the 'supporting' affidavits be dated prior to or contemporaneous with the information." Id., 178, 270 S.E.2d 619. Noting that an information supported by affidavit is required to assure that the prisoner is indeed charged with a crime in the demanding state, the court found that the documents before it, which included an information and two affidavits which postdated the information, gave adequate and overwhelming assurance that the prisoner was substantially charged in the demanding state. The court held that the purpose of the statute had been met and that "to allow applicant to prevail based on a meaningless and inflexible construction of the statute...