STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
LARRY BUTLER, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1986-10-24
No. 86-364
SCHEB, A.C.J., and HALL, J., concur.
496 So. 2d 916 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1986) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Holding

The Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD) speedy trial provisions are inapplicable once a prisoner is released from custody in the sending state.


Headnotes

[1] The Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD) and its speedy trial provisions are no longer applicable once a prisoner is released from custody in the sending jurisdiction.

[2] The purpose of the IAD is to facilitate speedy trials for incarcerated individuals and minimize disruptions to rehabilitation programs, which ceases to be a concern upon…

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Facts & Procedural History

A detainer was lodged against Butler in Florida while he was imprisoned in Ohio. Butler requested disposition of Florida charges under the IAD. The 18…

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Opinion of the Court
FRANK, Judge.

FRANK, Judge.

The state has appealed from an order discharging the defendant, Larry Butler, and releasing him from custody pursuant to the speedy trial provisions of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD). We reverse.

While Butler was imprisoned in Ohio a Florida detainer was lodged against him. Butler filed the necessary forms pursuant to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, §§ 941.45 ff., Fla.Stat., requesting disposition of the Florida charges. Among the forms received by the Florida prosecutor on July 30, 1985, was a “Certificate of Inmate Status” prepared by Ohio officials indicating that Butler would complete his Ohio prison sentence on January 20, 1986.

The IAD provides that a prisoner must be brought to trial in the receiving state “within 180 days after he shall have caused to be delivered to the prosecuting officer and the appropriate court of the prosecuting officer’s jurisdiction written notice of the place of his imprisonment and his request for a final disposition of the indictment, information, or complaint.” The 180 day period expired on Sunday, January 26, 1986; therefore, had no other factors intervened, Butler should have been brought to trial in Florida by Monday, January 27, 1986.

At a hearing on January 14, 1986, the state announced it was ready for trial; Butler’s counsel announced that he would be ready “on the back week”; and the trial was set for Friday, January 31, 1986. Neither the prosecutor nor the defense counsel expressed concern that the trial date was beyond the 180-day limit.

Several days later defense counsel filed two motions: a request for a statement of particulars and a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds. At a hearing on January 27 the trial court granted the motion for a statement of particulars but reserved ruling on the motion to dismiss to permit the attorneys to research whether the 180 day provision of the IAD began to run on the date the defendant requested disposition of the charges or on the date the state received notice of the request. At a January 31 hearing on this issue defense counsel conceded that the starting point of the 180 day period was the state’s receipt of the request for disposition. That hearing, however, was held on the 185th day, and the trial court therefore dismissed the charges against Butler on speedy trial grounds.

The trial court erroneously discharged the defendant. The first and foremost consideration is that Butler had been released from Ohio’s custody on January 20, before the expiration of the 180 day period. The IAD was enacted to provide certainty and prevent obstruction in “programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation.” § 941.45(1), Fla.Stat. The purpose of the act is to “obviate difficulties in securing speedy trials of persons incarcerated in other jurisdictions and to minimize the time during which there is an inherent danger that a prisoner may forego preferred treatment or rehabilitation benefits.” State v. Dunlap, 57 N.C.App. 175, 290 S.E. 2d 744, 745 (N.C.App.), cert. denied, 306 N.C. 388, 294 S.E. 2d 213 (1982).

A detainer may cause truly adverse consequences to the prisoner while in the sending jurisdiction: he may be precluded from eligibility for parole consideration; he may be excluded from work-release programs; or he might be confined under stricter security because of prison officials’ fear that he might attempt to escape. State v. Oxedine, 58 Md.App. 591, 473 A. 2d 1311, 1314 (1984).

All of those consequences of de-tainers, however, expire when the prisoner is no longer incarcerated. At that point the IAD — and its attendant speedy trial element — is no longer applicable. Dunlap, 290 S.E. 2d at 745.

Although we have found no Florida precedent addressing this particular issue, other state courts have expressed views consistent with Dunlap that a detainer statute is no longer applicable whén the prisoner is released from prison in the sending state or county: Pristavec v. State, 496 A. 2d 1036 (Del.1985); State v. Oxedine, 58 Md.App. 591, 473 A. 2d 1311 (1984); and State v. Quiroz, 94 N.M. 517, 612 P. 2d 1328 (App.1980).

At least one court has held the 180 day provision strictly applicable even though the defendant had been released on parole by the sending state, Loane v. State, 12 Ark.App. 374, 677 S.W. 2d 864 (1984), but that court failed to consider the speedy trial provisions of the act within the context of its policies and purposes. As noted by the dissenting judge in Loane, once the defendant had been released a delay in his Arkansas trial would have had no effect on the efforts of the sending state to rehabilitate him. 677 S.W. 2d at 866 (Mayfield J., dissenting).

In addition to its policy and purpose, the IAD’s plain language supports the view we adopt. The act is applicable to “prisoners” of sending states; once Butler had fully served his Ohio sentence, he was no longer a “prisoner” as the term is used in the IAD and thus the act ceased to be relevant to his status.

Finally, the state has contended that even if the speedy trial provisions of the act were applicable, the defendant by acquiescing in the setting of the trial date and by filing last-minute motions that could not be disposed of within the prescribed period, waived his speedy trial right.

We agree but find that extensive discussion of this issue is unnecessary in light of our holding on the first issue. It is sufficient to say that our supreme court, noting that the fundamental constitutional guarantees of the Florida speedy trial rule are neither unwaivable nor self-executing, has declined to bestow a greater dignity upon the statutory speedy trial provisions of the IAD, an act designed to enhance interstate cooperation and prisoner rehabilitation by resolution of all charges a convict faces. John son v. State, 442 So. 2d 193, 197 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 963, 104 S.Ct. 2181, 80 L.Ed.2d 563 (1984).

We reverse the trial court’s order discharging the defendant and remand this cause for further proceedings.

SCHEB, A.C.J., and HALL, J., concur.


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Cited By

  • Devine v. State, 120 So. 3d 171 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013)
    …ADA thus began on ... the date that Florida officials received [the defendant’s] request.”). According to the State’s motion to revoke bond filed in the proceedings below, Devine remained in prison in Ohio until August 18, 2011. See State v. Butler, 496 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986) (noting that the IAD is no longer applicable once a prisoner has been released from incarceration). Therefore, his motion to dismiss filed on March 16, 2011, was well taken. In short, Devine established that he made a legally suf…
  • Wray Dawes v. State, 135 So. 3d 420 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014)
    …of treatment or rehabilitation frustrated by “numerous absences in connection with successive proceedings related to pending charges in another jurisdiction”) (quoting United States v. Roberts, 548 F. 2d 665, 670-71 (6th Cir.1977)); State v. Butler, 496 So. 2d 916, 917 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986) (“The purpose of the act is to ‘obviate difficulties in securing speedy trials of persons incarcerated in other jurisdictions and to minimize the time during which there is an inherent danger that a prisoner may forego prefer…
  • United States v. Johnson, 953 F.2d 1167 (9th Cir. 1992)
    …last day of the pertinent period falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period runs to the end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or holiday. . E.g., People v. Bielecki, 588 P. 2d 377, 378 (Colo.Ct.App.1978); State v. Butler, 496 So. 2d 916, 916 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1986); Moon v. State, 258 Ga. 748, 375 S.E. 2d 442, 447 n. 2 (1988); State v. White, 234 Kan. 340, 673 P. 2d 1106, 1111 (1983); People v. Malone, 177 Mich.App. 393, 442 N.W. 2d 658, 660 n. 5 (1989); State v. Alderete, 95 N.M. 6…

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