Opinion ID: 536011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the district court make a finding of vindictiveness?

Text: 20 The government argues that the district court applied the Pearce presumption of vindictiveness because it applied the rule in that case without making a finding of fact regarding vindictiveness. Consequently, in this view, there exists no finding of fact to which we as a reviewing court owe deference. The government points out that application of the presumption by the district court is a ruling of law reviewable de novo on appeal. Because Pearce bears no application to the instant case, the argument continues, the district court's decision rises to abuse of discretion. Moreover, the government reasons, no objective evidence exists to support a finding of vindictiveness. 21 Kindred retorts that the district court did, indeed, find that the Parole Commission's decision was vindictive. The court found vindictiveness in the post hoc reasoning of the Parole Commission relying on evidence not articulated until the appellate level to shore up the result that it reached in its first incorrect decision. Kindred relies chiefly on Marshall v. Lansing, 839 F.2d 933 (3d Cir.1988), for his contention that the district court relied on substantial evidence rather than on a presumption in finding the Parole Commission's action vindictive. In Marshall, the Parole Commission ignored Marshall's disciplinary infraction in his first parole hearing. Marshall successfully attacked the decision in the district court, gaining an order to the Commission to reduce the severity of his offense. The Commission then tried to subvert the court's decision by using the known prior infraction to reinflate the severity of the offense to its original level. The Third Circuit held that the Commission's action violated due process because the Commission had known of the infraction and had not added it to its guideline tally until after Marshall had prevailed in the district court. Kindred argues strenuously that the Third Circuit arrived at its decision, not by attaching a Pearce presumption, but rather by citing the Pearce scenario as an example of conduct impermissible under the due process imperative. 22 Kindred presents the decision of the district court in the same light--i.e., that the court did not employ a presumption, rather, that it arrived at its conclusion of vindictiveness on the basis of the facts before it. The district court stated: 23 The parole authorities have added an additional 28 months to the time he must serve. It also stretches one's credulity that in going outside the guidelines you would come up with 80 months, which was the first release date under Category Seven. It appears that the parole authorities had made their decision that 80 months was the release date. They had to go outside the guidelines to arrive at that result so they used a post [hoc] justification reason to arrive at exactly the same result. 24 Kindred's reading of Marshall is arguably correct, even though that decision is conventionally treated as having extended the Pearce presumption into the parole arena. Even if Marshall did revolve around the application of the Pearce presumption, however, it remains incontrovertibly the business of the district court to find facts and to apply to those facts the correct legal rules. In other words, the district court is not limited to applying presumptions in arriving at conclusions of vindictiveness. In the instant case, the district court's treatment of the facts suggests that it implicitly found vindictiveness. (See above). The court's discussion of the Commission's conduct reflects a well fleshed-out consideration of the facts rather than the application of a bare bones presumption. In any case, we need not resolve the question of whether the district court found vindictiveness in view of our holding regarding the Commission's failure to follow its own procedures. 25 III. The due process implications of the Commission's failure to follow its own internal procedures. 26 The government next attacks the propriety of the holding in Marshall that parole decisions must adhere to the due process standard. The government relies on Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U.S. 1, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979), for the proposition that there is no constitutional right to parole. The Supreme Court in Greenholtz did, however, deduce a constitutionally protectible liberty interest in release from a Nebraska statute providing in mandatory language for parole. 442 U.S. at 11-12, 99 S.Ct. at 2105-06. In Board of Pardons v. Allen, 482 U.S. 369, 107 S.Ct. 2415, 96 L.Ed.2d 303 (1987), the Supreme Court, viewing that case as entirely consistent with Greenholtz, expressly recognized a protectible liberty interest in parole where the governing statute encapsulates parole in mandatory release language. 482 U.S. at 376, 107 S.Ct. at 2419-20. The statute governing Kindred's case is the Federal Parole Statute, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 4206(a); and its mandatory release language mirrors the language in the Montana statute construed by the Supreme Court in Allen. Section 4206(a) provides that a prisoner meeting the Commission's guidelines shall be released. Consequently, Allen controls this case and due process must govern Kindred's parole decision. 27 The government suggests that even if Allen applies the protection that it affords Kindred is in the nature of minimal procedural protections and that, therefore, Kindred is entitled to no more than a hearing and a statement of reasons why he does not qualify for release. The government alleges that the district court engaged in substantive due process analysis in scrutinizing the decision of the Commission and that, therefore, it substituted its discretion for that of the Commission, where it was properly and broadly vested. 28 The Commission's discretion is not unfettered. The Supreme Court in Allen was adamant that, although the Parole Board has discretion (in the sense of power to use its judgment in applying the standards set it), it is not incompatible with the existence of a liberty interest in parole release when release is required after the Board determines (in its broad discretion) that the necessary prerequisites exist. 482 U.S. at 376, 107 S.Ct. at 2419 (emphasis in original). Further, the Allen Court reiterated its Greenholtz holding that though release decisions are necessarily subjective and predictive and though the Board's discretion regarding them is very broad, the presence of mandatory release language creates a constitutionally protectible liberty interest in parole. 482 U.S. at 381, 107 S.Ct. at 2422. This liberty interest moors the Commission to certain due process standards. The parties take opposing views of the content of those standards. 29 The government, citing Greenholtz, argues for only a minimal due process threshold to apply to Commission decisions. Kindred contends that due process dictates that if the Commission goes outside the guidelines, it must simultaneously state the reasons for so doing. Both arguments carry a measure of truth. We conclude that the quantum of process due is that which is minimally required by the Constitution unless, as here, the government has affirmatively agreed to bind itself to a higher level of process. The argument for a higher level of process rests on the twin balustrades of the mandatory language of the parole statute and the regulations governing the Parole Commission. 30 The regulations create a requirement that a decision outside the guidelines be justified by a statement of the evidence used and the reasoning applied in reaching the conclusion. 28 C.F.R. section 2.13(d). See, also, Commission's Procedures at 2.20-05 (April 1987). The broad discretion inhering in the Commission is further delimited by requirements that such decisions be only for good cause and supported by clearly articulated reasons. 18 U.S.C. sections 4206(b), 4206(c). Accord Stroud v. United States Parole Commission, 668 F.2d 843 (5th Cir.1982); Rifai v. U.S. Parole Commission, 586 F.2d 695 (9th Cir.1978); Garcia v. Neagle, 660 F.2d 983 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied 454 U.S. 1153, 102 S.Ct. 1023, 71 L.Ed.2d 309 (1982). Furthermore and crucially, the Marshall court held that due process demands that an agency follow its own regulations and procedures. 839 F.2d 933, 943 (3d Cir.1988), citing, inter alia, United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974); Frisby v. United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, 755 F.2d 1052 (3d Cir.1985). Finally, Marshall explicitly creates a requirement of contemporaneous reasoning: [T]he case law is clear that the body imposing sanctions must explain its decision to impose an increased penalty contemporaneous with that decision. 839 F.2d 933, 948 n. 20. 31 We do not today reach the issue of whether the Constitution demands an equal complement of process to that the statute requires. Our decision, is, therefore, grounded in our reading of the Federal Parole Statute. The requirement of contemporaneous reasoning is the necessary corollary of the good cause and particularity demands of the statute. We do not find it overly intrusive to hold the Commission to its statutory mandate of providing clearly articulated reasons nor to infer a requirement that that reasoning be contemporaneous. So much flows easily from our reading of the statute. 32 For the above reasons, the decision of the district court is 33 AFFIRMED.