Court Opinion

ID: 9492379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:40:03.753327+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:16.893238
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In response to this concurring opinion on the “fugitive disentitlement doctrine,” Judge Moore makes the remarkable statement that Brown’s fugitive status for ten years does not have “a connection to the appellate process in this court” (4th paragraph from end of concurring opinion). Her entire argument is based on this view of the facts. But my colleague seems deliberately indifferent to the overriding fact that Brown would have been in jail for murder and unable to escape but for our issuance of a writ of habeas corpus in 1980. Brown’s escape is the direct result of this Court’s action in 1980. But for our deei*581sion, Brown would have been serving his sentence for murder when he thereafter took flight. We are directly responsible for his flight. How can it be said with a straight face in this case that Brown’s flight lacks a requisite “connection with the appellate process?”
The fugitive disentitlement doctrine limits access to courts in the United States by a fugitive who has fled a criminal conviction in a court in this country. The doctrine is long-established in both the federal and state courts, trial and appellate. The power of an American court to disentitle a fugitive from access to its power and authority is not jurisdictional in nature, see Molinaro v. New Jersey, 396 U.S. 365, 366, 90 S.Ct. 498, 24 L.Ed.2d 586 (1970). (“[S]uch [fugitive status] does not strip the case of its character as an adjudicable case or controversy .... ”), nor does it implicate constitutional privileges, see Ortega-Rodriguez v. United States, 507 U.S. 234, 113 S.Ct. 1199, 122 L.Ed.2d 581 (1993). Rather, the doctrine is an equitable one, see United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 681 n. 2, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985), that rests upon the supervisory power of the federal courts to administer the federal court system, see Goeke v. Branch, 514 U.S. 115, 115 S.Ct. 1275, 131 L.Ed.2d 152 (1995); Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 146, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985).
The fugitive disentitlement doctrine was first applied in the federal courts in Smith v. United States, 94 U.S. 97, 24 L.Ed. 32 (1876). Drawing upon earlier state cases, the Court in Smith removed from its docket a criminal defendant’s appeal from his conviction in the Washington Territory because the defendant fled the Court’s jurisdiction prior to resolution and thus was not under the control of the Court.
In Allen v. Georgia, 166 U.S. 138, 17 S.Ct. 525, 41 L.Ed. 949 (1897), the Supreme Court of Georgia had dismissed an appeal to it by a fugitive from a death penalty conviction. Over due process objections, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld not only the state court’s dismissal of the fugitive’s appeal, but also its refusal to reinstate the appeal after the defendant’s recapture, when enforceability was no longer at issue. In preserving the dignity of the judicial process, the Court stated:
We cannot say that the dismissal of a writ of error is not justified by the abandonment of his case by the plaintiff in the writ. By escaping from legal custody, he has, by the laws of most, if not all, of the states, committed a distinct criminal offense; and it seems but a light punishment for such offense to hold that he has thereby abandoned his right to prosecute a writ or error, sued out to review his conviction; otherwise he is put in a position of saying to the court: “Sustain my writ, and I will surrender myself, and take my chances upon a second trial; deny me a new trial, and I will leave the state, or forever remain in hiding.” We consider this as practically a declaration of the terms upon which he is willing to surrender, and a contempt of its authority, to which no court is bound to submit. It is much more becoming to its dignity that the court should prescribe the conditions upon which an escaped convict should be permitted to appear and prosecute his writ than that the latter should dictate the terms upon which he will consent to surrender himself to its custody.
Id. at 141, 17 S.Ct. 525. In Molinaro v. New Jersey, 396 U.S. 365, 90 S.Ct. 498, 24 L.Ed.2d 586 (1970), the Court refused to adjudicate the appeal of a convicted abortionist who refused to surrender himself to authorities after he was released on bail. The Court stated:
No persuasive reason exists why this Court should proceed to adjudicate the merits of a criminal case after the convicted defendant who has sought review escapes from the restraints placed upon him pursuant to the conviction. While such an escape does not strip the case of its character as adjudicable case or controversy, we believe it disentitles the defendant to call upon the resources of *582the Court for determination of his claims.
Id. at 366, 90 S.Ct. 498. In so holding, the Supreme Court in Allen and Molinaro simultaneously affirmed the principles enumerated in Smith and Bonahan and expanded the role of disentitlement as a penalty for flouting the judicial system.
In 1975 the Court in Estelle v. Dorrough, 420 U.S. 534, 95 S.Ct. 1173, 43 L.Ed.2d 377 (1975), confirmed the history and vitality of the doctrine and voiced still additional justifications for the fugitive dis-entitlement doctrine: promoting the dignified operation of the appellate courts and deterring felony escape. In response to an equal protection claim, the Court upheld a Texas statute mandating dismissal of an appeal where the defendant has escaped while the appeal is pending. In so doing, the Court stated that the statute furthered its intended goals of discouraging escape and encouraging voluntary surrender to authorities. See id. at 540, 95 S.Ct. 1173. Furthermore, the statute promoted “the efficient, dignified operation of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.” Id. at 557, 95 S.Ct. 1173.
Finally, there can be little doubt that the delay occasioned by the period of a defendant’s flight from justice can significantly prejudice the prosecution should a new trial be ordered after a successful appeal. In cases where such delay is significant— or, as in the instant matter, so long that it would appear to make reprosecution very difficult, if not impossible — “[i]t would be unconscionable to allow such a defendant to benefit from the delay by forcing the government to reprosecute him long after memories have dimmed and evidence has been lost.” United States v. Persico, 853 F.2d 134, 137 (2d Cir.1988). We recently applied this same principle in United States v. Lanier, 123 F.3d 945 (6th Cir.1997), even though the defendant remained a fugitive for only a few months and the evidence from the original trial had not grown stale.
As in the Lanier case, Petitioner Brown’s conduct in the instant matter exemplifies the utmost disrespect for the judicial process. Brown first invoked the power and authority of the federal courts in 1977, following his murder conviction, when he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that his direct state appeal was improperly dismissed. This Court affirmed the judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky that if Brown’s state appeal were not reinstated, his conviction would be set aside. Brown’s appeal was therefore heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court, which affirmed his conviction and remanded the case to the state trial court for resentencing. When Petitioner realized that the wheels of justice were no longer turning in his favor, he left for Australia where he eluded capture for a decade. Brown thus obtained a second chance to challenge his conviction and sentence by means of filings in both the state and federal courts. In so doing, he imper-missibly delayed the appellate process for 10 years.
In Ortega-Rodriguez v. United States, 507 U.S. 234, 113 S.Ct. 1199, 122 L.Ed.2d 581 (1993), the Supreme Court held that where a defendant’s flight and recapture occur before appeal, the defendant’s former fugitive status does not necessarily have the required connection to the appellate process to justify an appellate sanction of dismissal. Precisely, the Court stated that it would not allow
an appellate court to sanction by dismissal any conduct that exhibited disrespect for any aspect of the judicial system, even where such conduct has no connection to the appellate proceedings. Such a rule would sweep far too broadly, permitting, for instance, this Court to dismiss a petition solely because the petitioner absconded for a day during district court proceedings, or even because the petitioner once violated a condition of parole or probation.
Id. at 246, 113 S.Ct. 1199.
In the instant matter, however, Petitioner’s conduct was far more egregious than *583the minor infraction contemplated by the Court as not warranting dismissal. Indeed, it boggles the mind to think that Brown would be allowed to flee the judicial process for ten years and then return home upon extradition to challenge that process’ alleged shortcomings as though he had availed himself fully of his avenues of legal recourse from the start. In June 1993, following his ten-year absence as a fugitive, Petitioner filed a motion in state court to vacate the seventeen-year old judgment against him. The state trial court’s decision to deny that motion was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Kentucky. In July 1994, Petitioner filed a second, though not successive, petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Again, he availed himself of the mechanisms of the federal judiciary. That petition was dismissed without prejudice pending the exhaustion of all state court proceedings with respect to Brown’s appeal from the denial of this motion to vacate his sentence. When the Supreme Court of Kentucky denied his petition for rehearing, thereby exhausting his state remedies, Petitioner yet a third time turned to the federal courts to petition for writ of habeas corpus, which petition was denied, leading to this appeal.
Petitioner Brown’s behavior in the instant matter must be deterred. As in the Lanier case, he does not deserve a further decision on the merits. Following his conviction for murder, Brown invoked the mechanisms of the federal judiciary in order to guarantee the procedural integrity of his state court proceedings. His pleas by no means fell upon deaf ears. Fair cooperation can be maintained only as long as citizens respect their duty to conduct themselves according to the widely-accepted norm of equity and reciprocity. The individual may only demand reciprocity from the State — in this case the judiciary — .when he himself has respected his basic duty as a citizen not to become a fugitive from justice.