Court Opinion

ID: 9482410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:49:12.360297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:58.191712
License: Public Domain

ALITO, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
1. This habeas corpus appeal is the latest chapter in a long story. In 1981 and 1982, the petitioner, Wayne Paul Burkett, was charged in the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County, Pennsylvania, with three separate sets of serious criminal offenses. First, in February 1981, Burkett was charged with two rapes, two burglaries, and numerous other crimes. In November 1981, a jury found him guilty of some of the charges, including both burglaries. Burkett v. Cunningham, 826 F.2d 1208, 1211 & nn. 1, 3-5 (3d Cir.1987) (“Burkett I”). Burkett was never sentenced for those offenses, however, and therefore in Burkett I this court ordered his release. Id. at 1214, 1225-26.
Six days after Burkett’s first arrest in February 1981, he was arrested again and charged with a second set of offenses, including rape and aggravated assault. In January 1982, he was found guilty on all counts. 826 F.2d at 1211 & n. 2. He was not sentenced, however, until after he had filed a federal habeas petition and the district court had entered an order that, in effect, granted the writ unless Burkett was sentenced within a specified period. Id. at 1213 & n. 10. In July 1985, Burkett was sentenced as an habitual offender to imprisonment for 22 to 44 years {id. at 1213), but as a result of delay in disposing of his direct appeal, this court in Burkett I remanded for factfinding (id. at 1227) that eventually resulted in his discharge pursuant to another federal writ. Maj. at 1436 n.
5.
In April 1982, while on bail pending sentencing for the second set of charges, Burkett was arrested a third time and charged with attempted rape, burglary, and other crimes. 826 F.2d at 1211-12 & n. 6. He was convicted in January 1983 and sentenced in June 1985 to imprisonment for 16 to 32 years. Id. at 1213. The present appeal concerns this third set of charges.
2. Some of the delays in Burkett’s cases were aptly termed “monumental” in Burk-ett I, 826 F.2d at 1210, and consequently Burkett’s convictions for numerous serious crimes have already been overturned. Our task in this appeal is to determine whether Burkett’s constitutional rights were violated by delay in imposing sentence and disposing of his direct appeal relating to the third set of charges. Applying the factors set out in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972), the majority concludes that a constitutional violation occurred. I respectfully disagree.
Turning first to the length of delay, I concur fully with the majority’s conclusion that the gap between verdict and sentencing (29 months) was highly excessive. On the other hand, I do not think that the time from notice of appeal to affirmance by the Superior Court (18 months) may be similarly characterized.
The district court found that Burkett and the Commonwealth shared responsibility for causing the delays, and unlike the majority, I agree with this conclusion. There is no suggestion that the prosecution deliberately caused delay to hamper the defense. See Barker, 407 U.S. at 531, 92 *1450S.Ct. at 2192. In addition, there is no doubt that Burkett’s various applications, a good many of which do not concern complaints about delay, also prolonged the disposition of his case. To take the most striking example, within days after the guilty verdicts, Burkett’s attorney filed a one-page “Motion in Arrest of Judgment and/or For New Trial.” Among other things, this motion asserted without any elaboration that “[t]he verdict was against the weight of the evidence” and “against the law.” Without a supporting brief, the trial court could not have possibly decided this motion on the merits, but the defense did not file such a brief until 23 months later. In light of this extraordinary lag, the defense surely must share responsibility for the delay. While the trial judge could have prevented defense counsel’s conduct from delaying sentencing by issuing a briefing deadline and dismissing the motion in the event of noncompliance, the trial judge’s inaction does not completely exonerate the defense.
My major disagreement with the majority concerns the question of prejudice, which is “the polestar of any post-conviction speedy trial analysis.” Burkett I, 826 F.2d at 1232 (Garth, J., dissenting). The majority finds that the delay caused prejudice for three reasons: (1) Burkett was incarcerated in the county jail rather than in state prison, where he claims he would have enjoyed access to rehabilitation programs and visitation rights; (2) he suffered anxiety and distress caused by uncertainty about the length of the sentence that would be imposed and the disposition of his appeal; and (3) the delay might have had an impact on his defense at a retrial. In my view none of these reasons is entitled to much if any weight here.
I would not hold on the present record that Burkett was prejudiced because he was incarcerated in the county jail rather than a state prison. See Perez v. Sullivan, 793 F.2d 249, 257 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 936, 107 S.Ct. 413, 93 L.Ed.2d 364 (1986). If the relative conditions at the jail and prison are important for present purposes, then a careful evaluation based on reliable evidence is necessary. The majority, instead, relies solely on Burkett’s testimony that he preferred the prison. There is no objective evidence comparing the jail and prison; nor did the district court make any findings regarding the comparative desirability of the two institutions. I certainly would not find on appeal that one institution is more desirable than another based solely on a transcript of the testimony of a witness who testified knowing that several decades of incarceration were potentially at stake. More fundamentally, I would hold that differences between penal institutions can rarely, if ever, provide a basis for finding prejudice under Barker. Otherwise, the federal courts will have to start to compile comparative rankings of jails and prisons, an enterprise that does not have much to do with the constitutional right to a speedy trial, sentence, or appeal.
Nor would I conclude that Burkett was significantly prejudiced by anxiety and distress caused by uncertainty about the length of the sentence that would be imposed or the outcome of his direct appeal. Again, the majority relies solely on Burk-ett’s own testimony, and even this testimony does not show the kind of unusual mental suffering that our prior cases have demanded before placing much weight on this factor. See Government of the Virgin Islands v. Pemberton, 813 F.2d 626, 630 (3d Cir.1987); United States v. Dreyer, 533 F.2d 112, 116-17 (3d Cir.1976). See also Perez, 793 F.2d at 257, (“the anxiety of an accused [awaiting trial] is not to be equated for constitutional purposes with anxiety suffered by one who is convicted, in jail, unquestionably going to serve a sentence, and only waiting to learn how long that sentence will be”). If we are willing to find significant prejudice merely because a defendant states that he or she suffered from anxiety and distress, we might as well deem prejudice to exist in every case involving delay.
Finally, I am puzzled by the majority’s reliance on the possible impact of the sentencing delay on Burkett’s defense at a retrial. Since no court has held that Burk-ett is entitled to a new trial, it makes no *1451difference whether delay would have any effect if he were retried.
Taking all of the facts together and placing particular weight on the lack of demonstrable prejudice, I would not hold that a constitutional violation occurred. In reaching this conclusion, I emphatically do not approve or condone the type of delays that occurred throughout this case.
Having found a constitutional violation, the majority grapples with the question of remedy, recognizing, I believe, the anomaly presented by Burkett’s request to be discharged because of delay that has apparently had no impact whatsoever on the sentence imposed, the amount of time he will spend in custody, or the disposition of his appeal. The majority’s answer is to reduce Burkett’s sentence. The problems with this approach are self-evident. The Second Circuit’s alternative solution deserves consideration. Under that approach, state prisoners experiencing post-verdict delay are excused from compliance with exhaustion requirements after a shorter period of time than might otherwise be required, their habeas petitions are expedited, and conditional writs are granted requiring disposition of post-verdict proceedings within a specified period. See Cody v. Henderson, 936 F.2d 715 (2d Cir.1991); Diaz v. Henderson, 905 F.2d 652 (2d Cir.1990); Simmons v. Reynolds, 898 F.2d 865 (2d Cir.1990). Where a state prisoner does not seek such a conditional writ, however, habeas relief is granted only if delay unconstitutionally tainted the outcome of the post-verdict proceedings. Id.