Court Opinion

ID: 9486289
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:43:19.657711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:37.459354
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
Regretfully I must dissent from the majority opinion.
In my view, the only issue is whether the district court erred in construing its prior decree as barring retrial of Petitioner. This issue is controlled by Burton. “A district court is not permitted ... to clarify a judgment ... to reflect a new and subsequent intent because it perceives its original judgment to be incorrect. Rather, the interpretation must reflect the contemporaneous intent of the district court as evidenced by the record.” Burton, 975 F.2d at 694 (citations omitted).
The intent of the district court at the time it entered its original order, much like the intent of a legislative body at the time it enacts a statute, is one of law that we review de novo. Nevertheless, the court is free to place whatever reliance on the decision under review that it deems justified, so long as it reviews the record in light of its own independent judgment. Ocelot Oil Corp. v. Sparrow Indus., 847 F.2d 1458, 1464 (10th Cir.1988). In my view, the views of the district court as to its own intent are highly probative.
In this case, the original order required Respondent to release Petitioner “unless a new trial is held within 90 days.” As we held in Burton, this statement is ambiguous as to whether the district court merely intended to order the state to release Petitioner from imprisonment under this one conviction within ninety days, or whether the district court intended to require the state to retry Petitioner within ninety days or be forever barred from prosecuting him.
Given this ambiguity, the trial court’s own clear view of its order as requiring the state to retry Petitioner within ninety days or never is perfectly reasonable. Respondent has presented no arguments as to why the order cannot be interpreted in that way, or as to why the trial court should not be seen as having issued the order with that intent. Under these circumstances, and in light of the fact that we are barred from considering Respondent’s claim that the trial court abused its discretion, I can only conclude that the trial court was correct in its interpretation of its own order.
I would affirm the judgment of the district court.