State v. Pair

BARBERA, J. This case calls upon us to construe the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (“IAD”), codified at Maryland Code (1999, 2008 Repl. Vol.), §§ 8-401 to 8-417 of the Correctional Services Article. 1 In particular, we are asked to determine whether the Circuit Court for Cecil County correctly interpreted the IAD to require dismissal of the criminal charges against Appellee, Caleb Micha Pair, on the ground that Appellant, the State of Maryland (“the State”), failed to comply with the 180-day speedy trial period set forth in the IAD. The State appealed the Circuit Court’s decision to the Court of Special Appeals. We issued a writ of certiorari before briefing and argument in that court.

For the following reasons, we affirm the Circuit Court’s judgment of dismissal. I. The IAD, to which Maryland became a signatory in 1965, is a congressionally sanctioned compact among forty-eight states, the Federal Government, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. Drafted in 1956 by the Council of State Governments, the IAD has its origins in a report by a group of federal, state, and private entities (the “Joint Committee on Detainers”) highlighting the significant problems arising from the use of detainers. The IAD is based on a legislative finding that “ ‘charges outstanding against a prisoner, detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints and difficulties in securing speedy trial of persons already incarcerated in other jurisdictions, produce uncertainties which obstruct programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation.’ ” United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340, 351 , 98 S.Ct. 1834 , 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978) (quoting Article I of the ¹⁶¹ IAD, found at § 8-403).

The Supreme Court explained in Carchman v. Nash: The inmate who has a detainer against him is filled with anxiety and apprehension and frequently does not respond to a training program. He often must be kept in close custody, which bars him from treatment such as trustyships, moderations of custody and opportunity for transfer to farms and work camps. In many jurisdictions he is not eligible for parole; there is little hope for his release after an optimum period of training and treatment, when he is ready for return to society with an excellent possibility that he will not offend again. Instead, he often becomes embittered with continued institutionalization and the objective of the correctional system is defeated. 473 U.S. 716, 720 , 105 S.Ct. 3401 , 87 L.Ed.2d 516 (1985) (quoting Council of State Governments, Suggested State Legislation, Program for 1957, p. 74 (1956)).

See also generally Christopher D. Serf, Federal Habeas Corpus Review of Non-constitutional Errors: The Cognizability of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, 83 Colum. L.Rev. 975, 978 (1983) (summarizing the significant hardships that detainers imposed upon prisoners prior to enactment of the IAD). The IAD consists of nine articles, the first of which sets forth its policy and purpose: The party states find that charges outstanding against a prisoner, detainers[ 2 ] based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints, and difficulties in securing speedy trial of persons already incarcerated in other jurisdictions, produce uncertainties which obstruct programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation. Accordingly, it is the policy of the party states and the purpose of this Agreement to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of such ¹⁶² charges and determination of the proper status of any and all detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints.

The party states also find that proceedings with reference to such charges and detainers, when emanating from another jurisdiction, cannot properly be had in the absence of cooperative procedures. It is the further purpose of this Agreement to provide such cooperative procedures. Article-1 (§ 8-403). In short, the purpose of the IAD is to facilitate speedy disposition of charges underlying detainers.

The IAD sets forth two procedures designed to effectuate its purpose. First, Article IV of the IAD (§ 8-406) “enables a participating State to gain custody of a prisoner incarcerated in another jurisdiction, in order to try him on criminal charges[,]” Reed v. Farley, 512 U.S. 339, 341 , 114 S.Ct. 2291 , 129 L.Ed.2d 277 (1994), and, second, Article III (§ 8-405) “gives a prisoner incarcerated in one State the right to demand the speedy disposition of any untried indictment, information or complaint that is the basis of a detainer lodged against him by another State[,]” Carchman, 473 U.S. at 718-19 , 105 S.Ct. 3401 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The present case involves a prisoner’s request, pursuant to § 8-405, for a speedy disposition of outstanding charges. The interstate transfer process begins when the “receiving” state lodges a detainer with the warden “or other official” of the institution where the prisoner in question is currently imprisoned, in what is referred to as the custodial or “sending” state.

See § 8-405(b). The warden or other authority in the sending state is then obligated to inform the inmate of the detainer’s source and contents, and of the inmate’s right, under the IAD, to request final disposition of the charges on which the detainer is based. See § 8-405(c). , To exercise the right of speedy disposition, the inmate must file a request for IAD relief with the warden, who must forward the request to appropriate authorities in the receiving state. See § 8-405(d).

This document operates as a request ¹⁶³ by the prisoner for final disposition of all untried charges underlying the detainer and is deemed to be a waiver of extradition. See § 8-405(d); Mauro, 436 U.S. at 351 , 98 S.Ct. 1834 . Once the receiving state receives the request, 3 the IAD requires that jurisdiction to bring the prisoner to trial within 180 days, unless one of two provisions of the IAD is invoked. The first of these provides that a court in the receiving state may issue a continuance “for good cause shown in open court,” so long as the continuance is “necessary and reasonable” and “the prisoner or the prisoner’s counsel [is] present.” § 8-405(a). 4 The second provides that the 180-day requirement ¹⁶⁴ “shall be tolled whenever and for as long as the prisoner is unable to stand trial, as determined by the court having jurisdiction of the matter.” § 8-408(a) (emphasis added). 5 If neither of these tolling provisions is properly invoked, then the receiving state’s failure to comply with the 180-day provision requires dismissal of the charges, with prejudice.

See § 8-407(c). 6 Because the purpose of the IAD is to help effectuate the rehabilitative process for those who are incarcerated, it applies only to individuals who have “entered upon a term of imprisonment.” § 8-405(a). As we shall discuss in more detail, infra, the IAD has been interpreted not to apply to individuals in pre-trial confinement who are awaiting the disposition of charges brought by the state in which they are detained. See, e.g., Painter v. State, 157 Md.App. 1, 17 , 848 A.2d 692, 701 (2004) (collecting cases). ¹⁶⁵ II. Appellee was convicted of robbery by a Delaware state court in August 2005, and began serving the sentence for that crime at a correctional facility in that state.

Just over one month after the Delaware robbery conviction, Appellee was indicted in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, Maryland, on an unrelated charge of armed robbery. On May 18, 2006, the State lodged a detainer with the proper authority in Delaware, a signatory to the IAD. Appellee timely filed a request under the IAD for disposition of the charges. The State received that request on July 26, 2007, and offered to take temporary custody of Appellee until final disposition of the charges.

On September 6, 2007, Delaware refused the offer because, meanwhile, Delaware had charged Appellee with assault and related offenses arising out of a March 2007 incident allegedly involving Appellee and a correctional officer at the institution where Appellee was housed. The following day, September 7, 2007, an Assistant State’s Attorney for Cecil County filed in the Circuit Court for Cecil County a motion for continuance of trial on the Maryland charges until resolution of the pending Delaware charges. We have mentioned that the IAD requires continuances to be granted upon “good cause shown in open court, the prisoner or the prisoner’s counsel being present!.]” § 8-405(a). The Circuit Court granted the motion four days later, without conducting a hearing.

On May 6, 2008, Appellee was acquitted of all the Delaware charges. Delaware, however, did not inform the Cecil County State’s Attorney Office of the acquittal. Indeed, the State’s Attorney’s Office did not learn of the outcome of the Delaware proceedings until July 24, 2008, when it received Appellee’s second request for IAD relief. Following that, the State accepted temporary custody of Appellee and set a trial date of October 15, 2008, for disposition of the pending Maryland charges. ¹⁶⁶ On that date, Appellee, represented by counsel, filed a motion to dismiss the charges, citing the State’s failure to prosecute him within 180 days of July 26, 2007, the date on which the State received his initial request.

Appellee argued that, although Delaware had informed the State that it was unwilling to send Appellee to Maryland for trial, Delaware’s denial of the State’s request for temporary transfer did not abrogate the State’s responsibilities under the IAD. The State offered three arguments in opposition to the motion to dismiss. The State argued that Appellee’s incarceration in Delaware constituted what the State described as “pretrial confinement awaiting disposition of [his] charge,” so the IAD, and consequently its 180-day requirement, did not apply. The State also argued that the continuance the Circuit Court granted in September 2007 tolled the 180-day period for the duration of the time leading up to Appellee’s temporary transfer to Maryland on July 24, 2008.

Finally, the State argued that, even if the continuance did not satisfy the requirements of § 8-405, the 180-day time period nonetheless was tolled from September 6, 2007 (the date Maryland learned of Delaware’s refusal to transfer Appellee) until Appellee’s transfer to Maryland on July 24, 2008, because, pursuant to § 8-408(a), Appellee was “unable to stand trial” in Maryland during that time. The Circuit Court (the Honorable Dexter M. Thompson, Jr. presiding) heard the motion to dismiss. The court rejected each of the State’s arguments and, agreeing with Appellee that Maryland had violated the 180-day provision of the IAD, dismissed the charges with prejudice. The court reasoned that “the IAD definitely applies” to Appellee because, when Maryland lodged the detainer, Appellee met the condition of the IAD that he had “entered upon a term of imprisonment” in Delaware, even though, for some period of time thereafter, he was also awaiting trial on the new Delaware assault charges.

The court also found no merit in the State’s argument that the Circuit Court’s grant of the State’s September 7, 2007 ¹⁶⁷ request for continuance tolled the 180-day clock. The court ruled that the continuance was without effect because it was obtained without compliance with the IAD requirement of a hearing in open court, with Appellee or his counsel present. 7 The court then turned to the State’s contention that Appellee had been “unable to stand trial,” under § 8-408(a), on the Maryland charges because of Delaware’s refusal to send him during the pendency of the Delaware assault charges. The court divided into four time periods the 447 days between the time Appellee requested disposition of the Maryland charges and the scheduled trial date: (1) the 42 days between July 26, 2007, when Maryland received Appellee’s initial IAD request, and September 6, 2007, when Delaware informed Maryland that it would not send him to Maryland for trial; (2) the 243 days between September 6, 2007, and May 6, 2008, when Appellee was acquitted of the new charges in Delaware; (3) the 79 days between May 6, 2008, and July 24, 2008, when Maryland learned of the acquittal; and (4) the 83 days between July 24, 2008, and October 15, 2008, the scheduled trial date. The court found no tolling dining the first period (42 days).

The court found tolling during the second period (243 days) because “Delaware refused to send [Appellee] to Maryland” pending disposition of the Delaware charges. The court disagreed with the State, however, that such tolling continued beyond May 6, 2008, the date on which Appellee was acquitted of those charges. Rather, the court reasoned, the 180-day clock resumed on that day and ran for 79 days through July 24, 2008, the day the State learned about the acquittal (the third period), and continued for another 83 days to the scheduled trial date of October 15, 2008 (the fourth period), which, when added to the 42 days at the outset, created a total delay ¹⁶⁸ of 204 days. Because the total non-tolled time exceeded 180 days, the court concluded that dismissal of the indictment was required by the terms of § 8—407(c).

The State noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. On September 14, 2009, before briefing and argument in that court, we granted a writ of certiorari, State v. Pair, 410 Md. 559 , 979 A.2d 707 (2009), to answer the following question: Did the circuit court err in dismissing the charges on the basis of violation of the 180-day period of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers where the trial court failed to toll the 180-day period as required after Delaware refused to transfer [Appellee] and [Appellee] was unable to stand trial in Maryland as a result?

III

The propriety of the Circuit Court’s dismissal of the charges hinges on whether that court correctly interpreted and applied the IAD to the facts before it. As the facts are not in dispute, we have only to decide whether the court was legally correct in its interpretation of the law. Schisler v. State, 394 Md. 519, 535 , 907 A.2d 175, 184 (2006). In doing so, we must examine the provisions of the IAD with the goal of ascertaining the legislative intent, by resorting first to the plain language of the law.

Thanner v. Balt. County, 414 Md. 265, 277 , 995 A.2d 257, 264 (2010). We strive to avoid constructions that are inconsistent with common sense or render any of the statutory language nugatory or surplusage. Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. v. Md. Dep’t of the Env’t, 410 Md. 326, 339 , 978 A.2d 702, 709 (2009).

If the language is ambiguous because it is susceptible to more than one equally reasonable construction, we look to legislative intent to resolve the ambiguity. Melton v. State, 379 Md. 471, 477 , 842 A.2d 743, 746 (2004). The IAD is a congressionally sanctioned compact, and as a federal law is subject to federal construction. Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U.S. 433, 442 , 101 S.Ct. 703 , 66 L.Ed.2d 641 ¹⁶⁹ (1981).

Therefore, we defer to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of it. Moreover, by its express terms, the IAD “shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate its purposes.” § 8-411. A. We turn first to the State’s argument that the Circuit Court erred in concluding that the IAD applies to the facts of this case. In the State’s view, the IAD does not apply because, in terms of IAD law, Appellee was not serving “a term of imprisonment” in Delaware, but was instead in “pretrial status” in that state due to the pending Delaware charges.

We disagree. We have said that the IAD requires that a prisoner subject to a detainer must “ha[ve] entered upon a term of imprisonment in a penal or correctional institution of a party state,” § 8-405(a), at the time the detainer was lodged, in order to invoke the speedy trial provision of the IAD. We also have mentioned that courts have consistently construed that language to mean that the IAD does not apply to a prisoner in pre-trial confinement. Painter, 157 Md.App. at 17 , 848 A.2d at 701 .

See United States v. Currier, 836 F.2d 11, 16 (1st Cir.1987) (the IAD applies “exclusively to prisoners who are actually serving their sentences, and not to pretrial detainees”); accord United States v. Wilson, 27 F.3d 1126, 1130 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 976 , 115 S.Ct. 452 , 130 L.Ed.2d 361 (1994); United States v. Muniz, 1 F.3d 1018, 1025-26 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1002 , 114 S.Ct. 575 , 126 L.Ed.2d 474 (1993); United States v. Bayless, 940 F.2d 300, 303 (8th Cir.1991); United States v. Dobson, 585 F.2d 55, 59 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 899 , 99 S.Ct. 264 , 58 L.Ed.2d 247 (1978); State v. Hargrove, 273 Kan. 314 , 45 P.3d 376, 383 , cert. denied, 537 U.S. 982 , 123 S.Ct. 452 , 154 L.Ed.2d 345 (2002); State v. Reed, 266 Neb. 641 , 668 N.W.2d 245, 251-52 (2003), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 1154 , 124 S.Ct. 1158 , 157 L.Ed.2d 1051 (2004). We agree with the Painter Court’s assessment of the “entered upon a term of imprisonment” limitation on the applicability of the IAD: ¹⁷⁰ [This] limitation is consistent with the point of the Agreement---- [T]he purpose of the IAD is to minimize the adverse impact of a foreign prosecution on rehabilitative programs of the confining jurisdiction. As a pretrial detainee has little or no interest in any of the rehabilitative programs of the institution[ ] in which he is being temporarily detained pending trial, there is no basis to justify invoking the IAD. 157 Md.App. at 17 , 848 A.2d at 701 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). It is undisputed that, when the State lodged the detainer, Appellee, then serving the sentence imposed upon his August 2005 robbery conviction, had “entered upon a term of imprisonment” in Delaware.

The State’s insistence that, for purposes of the IAD, Appellee was in pre-trial detention in Delaware confuses the basis for Delaware’s incarceration of Appellee in the first place (the 2005 conviction) with Delaware’s reason for subsequently refusing to send him to Maryland (the pendency of the new assault charges). Moreover, even if the language of § 8-405(a) supports the State’s argument, which it does not, the argument is undermined by a critical fact: Appellee could not have been in pre-trial detention at the time the State filed the detainer because the incident that formed the basis of the new Delaware charges occurred ten months later. Beyond that, the State’s argument subverts the purpose of the IAD, which is avoidance of interruption of the rehabilitative efforts on the inmate’s behalf in the sending state. The pendency of the Delaware charges does not change the fact that before, while, and after the charges were pending, Appellee was serving a term of imprisonment on the 2005 Delaware conviction.

Appellee therefore maintained throughout his confinement in Delaware a continued interest in his rehabilitation and in avoiding any adverse consequences on the conditions of his confinement that may have been precipitated by the detainer. See United States v. Roy, 771 F.2d 54, 58 (2d Cir.1985) (holding that a prisoner who was serving a sentence on a Connecticut conviction could invoke the protections of the ¹⁷¹ IAD in response to a federal detainer because “[t]he fact that additional Connecticut charges were pending against him did not diminish his interests in his rehabilitation and in avoiding the adverse consequences on the conditions of his confinement caused by the filing of a detainer”), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1110 , 106 S.Ct. 1520 , 89 L.Ed.2d 918 (1986). We therefore hold that Appellee was serving “a term of imprisonment” in a Delaware state correctional institution within the meaning of the IAD, notwithstanding that, for a period of time during that incarceration, he also faced pending Delaware charges. The IAD therefore applies to Appellee, and he is entitled to the speedy trial protections afforded by it.

B. We now consider whether the Circuit Court properly concluded that the State violated the 180-day speedy trial provision of the IAD. There is no question that a total of 447 days elapsed between July 26, 2007, the date on which Maryland received Appellee’s initial request for speedy disposition of the charges and October 15, 2008, the scheduled trial date. The question is whether enough of that 447-day period, if any portion of it at all, was tolled so as to bring the State into compliance with the 180-day requirement of the IAD. The parties do not dispute the four-period breakdown used by the Circuit Court in addressing this issue, and we adopt it as we consider the State’s challenge to the legal correctness of the court’s analysis.

The State concedes that the Circuit Court correctly concluded that the 180-day period began to run on July 26, 2007, and ran for 42 days until September 6, 2007,