Court Opinion

ID: 9475802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:38:33.426563+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:56.480580
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority that Villa’s challenge to the length of his sentence is not mooted by his § 1983 settlement. I also agree that resentencing is not required in every habeas corpus case where a judge relied on inaccurate information. But see United States ex rel Welch v. Lane, 738 F.2d 863, 865 (7th Cir.1984) (sentence may be set aside when defendant shows court relied on inaccurate information in passing sentence). However, given the fragmentary record we have on appeal, I would remand to the district court for. a determination whether waiver actually occurred in sentencing or on state appeal, and, if so, for a determination whether cause and prejudice can be shown to overcome the procedural default.
In light of the fragmentary transcript that we have on appeal, it is not clear to me that Villa waived any challenge at the sentencing hearing itself. Admittedly, it seems likely that he should at least have requested a continuance, but given the record before us, and the fact that the district court did not address this question *720of waiver, we ought to remand. Similarly, it is not clear that Villa waived the claim on appeal in the state court. Villa apparently did challenge the sentence as improperly based on false information, but did not argue under U.S. v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972). The state court did not reach the merits of the issue, for somewhat obscure reasons (Villa’s claim that no special facilities existed in prison was merely “unsupported by the record”). Again, the district court did not reach this waiver issue. The respondent, in answering the petition in the district court, apparently did not argue that waiver occurred on the state appeal. Thus, it is not obvious that Villa waived his constitutional challenge, nor is it obvious that the respondent can now claim a defense of waiver.
Even if waiver were found, either in the sentencing hearing or on state appeal, Villa should be given an opportunity to show cause and prejudice sufficient to overcome the procedural default. This issue also was not reached by the district court; we should remand for its determination. With respect to the question of cause, if, as Villa has asserted on appeal, the information about prison facilities was in the state’s exclusive control and treated as confidential, it is arguable that Villa could show, as outlined in Murray v. Carrier, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2646, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986), that the facts were not reasonably available to counsel, or that there was some interference by the state with access to them. It seems difficult to deny these possibilities given the state of record on appeal. Regarding the issue of prejudice, we know the outlines of this standard when applied to errors at trial (the errors must have “worked to [the defendant’s] actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting the entire trial,” Murray, 106 S.Ct. at 2649), but it is not clear how this translates into prejudice in a sentencing hearing. Given the highly discretionary nature of sentencing, it is difficult to conclude that such an error caused no prejudice. In this case, where the sentencing judge explicitly relied on the false information in imposing the sentence, prejudice is possible if not likely.
The district court did not decide the question of waiver or of possible cause and prejudice. In light of the incomplete record on appeal and the factual questions implicated here, we should remand to the district court to determine these issues.