DONALD LEWIS A/K/A DONALD MORRIS ROWELL, APPELLANT,
v.
EDDIE BOONE, AS SHERIFF OF LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1982-07-29
No. AH-168
BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
418 So. 2d 319 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1982) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

Donald Lewis challenged his detention for 32 days under Florida's Uniform Interstate Extradition Act, arguing that failure to serve him with a governor's warrant or recommit him within 30 days violated the statute and entitled him to habeas corpus relief. The Florida District Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of his petition, holding that substantial compliance with the Extradition Act, combined with actual service of a governor's warrant prior to habeas proceedings, precludes habeas relief.


Holding

A prisoner detained beyond the 30-day statutory limit is not entitled to habeas corpus relief if he has been arrested under a governor's warrant prior to the habeas proceedings and the state has substantially complied with the Uniform Interstate Extradition Act.


Headnotes

[1] A prisoner arrested under a governor's warrant is not entitled to habeas corpus relief if the warrant was served prior to the habeas proceedings, even if the initial arre…

[2] Substantial compliance with the Uniform Interstate Extradition Act is sufficient to uphold the lawfulness of a prisoner's detention under a governor's warrant.

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Key Quotes

“Section 941.14 requires an accused to be promptly brought before a judge or magistrate, who may commit him for a period up to thirty days. That detention permits time for the procedures required for production of a governor's warrant.”

Establishes the statutory framework for initial 30-day detention period in extradition proceedings.

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Facts & Procedural History

Lewis was arrested on August 13, 1981, pursuant to § 941.14 of Florida's Uniform Interstate Extradition Act. On September 15, 1981—32 days later—he wa…

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Opinion of the Court
WENTWORTH, Judge.

WENTWORTH, Judge.

The appellant/petitioner appeals the circuit court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus asserting detention in violation of § 941.14 et seq., Florida Statutes.1 We affirm. Petitioner was arrested on .August 13, 1981,2 pursuant to the cited statute.

On September 15, 1981, thirty two days after his initial arrest, he was served with a governor’s warrant ordering his extradition to Nevada.

At the hearing on the petition his attorney argued that the detention for more than thirty days, without recommitment, was illegal and that he was therefore entitled to immediate release. In rebuttal the state attorney introduced the requisition warrant and the governor’s warrant as evidence of petitioner’s lawful confinement.

The trial court found that the warrants of extradition were facially proper and denied the petition.

Section 941.14 requires an accused to be promptly brought before a judge or magistrate, who may commit him for a period up to thirty days. That detention permits time for the procedures required for production of a governor’s warrant. If the prisoner is not arrested under the governor’s warrant within thirty days, he may be recommitted for up to sixty more days. § 941.17, Florida Statutes (1981). Since appellant was neither arrested within thirty days nor recommitted under § 941.17, he contends he is unlawfully confined and entitled to immediate release.

This appears to be a case of first impression in Florida, although we find some guidance in State v. Fulkerson, 300 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974). In Fulkerson, the defendant had escaped from jail four days after he was served with an untimely governor’s warrant. As a defense to the escape charge, Fulkerson argued that because he was held beyond the thirty-day limit in § 941.15, and was not recommitted under § 941.17, he was not in lawful custody at the time of the escape.

The court rejected this argument, finding that once the governor’s warrant had been served he was dearly in lawful confinement, which mooted the question of whether escape charges would otherwise be proper. Other states have considered more particularly the issue raised by this case; i.e., whether a prisoner is entitled to habeas corpus relief when his arrest under the governor’s warrant is untimely. Although there is some support for appellant’s position,3 we find that the greater weight of authority more logically holds that upon substantial compliance with the Uniform Interstate Extradition Act, when the prisoner has in fact been arrested under the governor’s warrant prior to the habeas proceedings, he is not entitled to relief. See Cohen v. Warden, 252 F.Supp. 666 (D.Md.1966); Quaekenbush v. Fairchild, 291 Pa.Super. 358, 435 A. 2d 1266 (1981); Quackenbush v. Fairchild, 291 Pa.Super. 209, 435 A. 2d 872 (1981); Stynchcombe v. Whitley, 240 Ga. 776, 242 S.E. 2d 720 (1978).

We therefore conclude accordingly that in the circumstances of this case the petition for habeas corpus was properly denied.

AFFIRMED.

BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur. . Section 941.14 of the Uniform Interstate Extradition Act provides:

941.14 Arrest without a warrant. — The arrest of a person may be lawfully made also by any peace officer or a private person, without a warrant upon reasonable information that the accused stands charged in the courts of a state with a crime punishable by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding 1 year, but when so arrested the accused must be taken before a judge or magistrate with all practicable speed and complaint must be made against him under oath setting forth the ground for the arrest as in the preceding section; and thereafter his answer shall be heard as if he had been arrested on a warrant.

. The record on appeal does not adequately reflect the date and statutory basis of the arrest. In this court, though not in the proceedings below, the state argues that this record deficiency is fatal to appellant’s case. While we agree that the record could have been more fully compiled, we assume, as did the parties and the trial judge at the hearing, that the date and basis of appellant’s confinement are as he has represented them.

. See Speaks v. McGregor, 355 F.Supp. 1129 (W.D.Va.1973); Commonwealth ex rel. Coffman v. Aytch, 238 Pa.Super. 584, 361 A. 2d 652 (1976), both of which involve substantial governmental infractions of the Uniform Extradition Act’s time limits.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Roberts, 427 So. 2d 787 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)
    …makes a good faith effort to bring himself within the Agreement’s purview, and omits nothing essential to the Agreement’s operation, then his failure of strict compliance will not deprive him of its benefits. 598 S.W. 2d at 590. Cf. Lewis v. Boone, 418 So. 2d 319 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982) (holding that the state’s substantial compliance with the Uniform Interstate Extradition Act, section 941.14, et seq., Florida Statutes (1981), validated a two-day late Governor’s extradition warrant). In the case sub judice, Ro…
  • Weathers v. Boone, 434 So. 2d 1010 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)
    …PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED. See Lewis v. Boone, 418 So. 2d 319 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., SHIVERS and NIMMONS, JJ., concur.…
  • Spears v. McCRAY, 505 So. 2d 3 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)
    …[*4] PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED. See: Lems v. Boone, 418 So. 2d 319 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). MILLS, SHIVERS and JOANOS, JJ., concur.…

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